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COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



ROSALYNDE 

OR, EUPHUES' GOLDEN LEGACY 



BY 



THOMAS LODGE 




,^^^S=^ 




Edited 
With Introduction and Notes 

BY 



(^ 



EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor of English Literature 
AT the University of Illinois 





GINN AND COMPANY 

BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 



^ 



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Copyright, igio, by 
EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. ^ 






C" CI, A 2753 41 



PREFACE 

This edition of Lodge's " Rosalynde " has grown out of a 
need felt by the editor for an example of Elizabethan prose 
suitable for use in a general survey course in English, designed 
for college freshmen. '^ Rosalynde," of all the books that were 
considered, seemed on the whole best to fulfill the desired con- 
ditions. As a pastoral romance it belongs to a class of books 
which, if jipt peculiar to the Elizabethan age, is at least thor- 
oughly representative of it. Moreover, the story is entirely 
unobjectionable, nothing being found in it that could offend 
any reader. The " Rosalynde," being one of the shortest of 
the prose romances, is not open to the objections that might 
be urged against the more famous, but also more discursive, 
'* Arcadia " of Sidney. Its close relations with Shakespeare's 
" As You Like It," which is also read in the course, and its 
added interest as one of the precursors of the modern novel, 
additionally recommend it. Finally, its coherent plot, its free- 
dom _Jrom_digressions, and its happy ending, make it seem 
likely to interest students, in spite of the conventionality of the 
pastoral form. 
' The annotation has been confined to giving the meanings 
of obsolete or unusual words. There are many mythological 
allusions that call for explanation ; but this, it is thought, any 
good dictionary of mythology will supply. The list of ques- 
tions is not of course exhaustive, and is intended to be merely 
suggestive of the kind of study the college student in an intro- 
ductory course in English might well be fitted to undertake. 
The text is that of the Hunterian Club edition of Lodge's 

iii 



iv ROSALYNDE 

''Works." This reprint is of the first edition, that of 1590, 
except that (since the only known copy of the first edition 
of ''Rosalynde" is imperfect) a few pages (121-127 of this 
edition) were reprinted from the second edition of 1592. The 
spelling and punctuation have to some extent been modernized 
— the latter having been altered only where changes serve to 
make the author's meaning more obvious. 

The editor acknowledges his indebtedness to the scholarly 
edition of Lodge's ''Rosalynde" by W. W. Greg (London and 
New York, 1907), particularly to the glossarial index, which has 
supplied the meanings of some words about which the editor 
was in considerable doubt. Thanks are due, also, to my col- 
league Mr. Arthur Tietje for his helpful suggestions in pre- 
paring the list of questions. -c r^ -d 

hi, C X). 

Urbana, Illinois 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Introduction vii 

Birth and Education ; Early Work ; Later Work and Death ; 
Source of " Rosalynde " : " The Tale of Gamelyn " ; Form : A 
Pastoral Romance ; Spanish Influence ; Style : Euphuistic ; 
One of the Last Examples of Euphuism*; The Charm of the 
Book ; Lodge's Skill as a Story-teller ; The Lyrical Inter- 
ludes ; Historical Significance ; Shakespeare's Dramatiza- 
tion of " Rosalynde." 

Bibliography xxi 

The Published Works of Thomas Lodge .... xxii 

Author's Preface xxv 

Author's Dedication xxvii 

Text i 

Questions 131 



INTRODUCTION 

Birth and Ediicatio7i. Of the life of Thomas Lodge com- 
paratively little is definitely known. Yet, though even the year 
of his birth is uncertain, we are able from the meager facts that 
have come down to us to see that his life was typically Eliza- 
bethan. Like Sidney and like Raleigh, Lodge lived a varied 
and active life. He was born in either 1557 or 1558 of a 
rather prominent middle-class London family, both his father 
and his mother's father having been lord mayors of the city. 
He was sent to Merchant Taylors' School and afterwards to 
Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1577. Of his 
career at the university we know almost nothing except that 
among his fellow students were John Lyly, destined to exert 
a powerful influence upon his style, and George Peele, later 
to become a dramatist of note, to whom Lodge may to some 
extent have ow^ed^ his subsequent interest in the drama. 

Early Work. After leaving Oxford, Lodge returned to Lon- 
don and entered the Society of Lincoln's Inn, in other words 
took up the study of the law. Legal studies seem not to have 
absorbed his attention to the total exclusion of literary work. 
The occasion of his first publication was the death of his mother 
in 1579. In that year appeared the '' Epitaph of the Lady Anne 
Lodge." This is not extant, but his reply to Stephen Gosson's 
" School of Abuse " has survived. Gosson's book had been a 
furious attack upon the contemporary drama. Ladge's reply 
was a fair sample of the literary billingsgate of that controversial 
age" and deserves the oblivion into which it promptly sank. His 
next publication was his ^^ Alarum against Usurers" (1584), a 

vii 



viii ROSALYNDE 

book belonging to a class of tracts popular in that day in which 
the characters and customs of the underworld of London were 
exposed to popular execration. The impulse to engage in this 
journalistic kind of work Lodge may have owed to Robert 
Greene, the dramatist, with whom he at this time became inti- 
mate, and whose popular books on cony-catching the "Alarum," 
in its spirit and purpose, closely resembles. Greene certainly fur- 
nished some of the inspiration for the dramatic attempts that 
followed. Lodge's play, '' The Wounds of Civil War," though 
not printed till 1594, may have been acted in 1587. We know 
that he collaborated with Greene in "A Looking Glass for 
London and England," produced in 1592. 

Za^er Work and Death. I t is n ot, however, as a dramatist 
that Lodge is remembered, but as a writer of pastoral romance. 
Here the discursive and idyllic quality of his genius, both in 
verse and prose, was to find complete and unhampered expres- 
sion. Of the pastoral romances that Lodge produced during the 
next decade '' Rosalynde " is by far the most important. The 
author wrote it, he tells us, while he was on a freebooting expe- 
dition to the Azores and the Canaries, "when every line was wet 
with a surge, and every humorous passion counterchecked with 
a storm." The immediate success of " Rosalynde " encouraged 
Lodge to continue the writing of romances. The best known 
of those that followed, and one of the prettiest of his stories, 
is "A Margarite [i.e. pearl] of America." This was written 
while Lodge was engaged in another patriotic raid under Cap- 
tain Cavendish against the Spanish colonies of South America. 
The romance is in no sense American, and owes its title solely 
to the fact that it was written, or, as Lodge claims translated, 
from the Spanish, while Lodge's ship was cruising off the coast 
of Patagonia. Lodge certainly knew Spanish ; and during the 
month that the expedition lingered at Santos in Brazil, he spent 
much of his time in the library of the Jesuit College. Possibly 



INTRODUCTION ix 

this was the beginning of his leaning toward Catholicism. At 
all events, he later became a Roman Catholic and wrote in sup- 
port of that faith at a time when to be other than a Protestant 
in England was extremely dangerous. Sometime previous to 
1600 he took a degree of doctor of medicine at Avignon and 
wrote among other medical treatises one on the plague. Of this 
disease, it is said, he died in 1625. 

Source jfJLRomlynde^': '' The Tale of Gamely n'^ Lodge did 
not invent the plot of '^ Rosalynde." The story is based upon 
'' The Tale of Gamelyn.'' This is a na rr at ive in rough ballad 
form, written in the fourteenth century and formerly attributed 
to Chaucer. Indeed all the copies of it that have been preserved 
occur in the manuscripts of the '^ Canterbury Tales '^ under the 
title '^The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn.'' From the ^^Tale" Lodge 
borrowed and adapted the account of the death of old Sir John 
of Bordeaux, the subsequent quarrel of his sons, the plot of the 
elder against the younger by which the latter was to be killed 
in a wrestling bout, the wrestling itself , the flight of the younger 
accompanied by the faithful Adam to the Forest of Arden, and 
their falling in with a band of outlaws feasting. Yet from the 
''Tale" Lodge took hardly more than a suggestion. All the love 
story was his own. Original also, so far as we know,^ was 
the story of the two kings, and the__pastoral element — for 
" Rosalynde ^'s a pastoral romance. 

Form : A Pastoral Romance. As a pastoral romance it be- 
longs to the class of books of which Sidney's ''Arcadia " is the 
most famous representative in English. The "Arcadia " WdS 
published in 1590 — the same year as " Rosalynde " — though 
it had been written some ten years earlier. The literary genus 
to which they belong is a very old one. The prose pastoral 

1 It has been conjectured that Lodge drew upon some ItaHan novel for the 
material that he did not find in '~' The Tale of Gamelyn." There seems, however, 
no ground for denying to Lodge credit for some originality ; for the novel, if 
it ever existed, has been lost. 



X ROSALYNDE 

romance, that kind of prose romance which professes to delineate 
the scenery, sentiments, and incidents of shepherd life,^ is, like 
most other literary forms, Greek in origin. It goes back at least 
to the " Daphnis and Chloe '^ of Longus, the Byzantine romancer 
of the fifth century a.d. Longus represents the romantic spirit 
in expiring classicism, the longing of a highly artificial society 
for primitive simplicity, and the endeavor to create a correspond- 
ing ideal. Indeed the pastoral has always been a product of a 
highly artificial age. Naturally, therefore, it has always been 
written by men of the city rather than by men of the country. 
It is distinctly an urban product. That it was so accounts in 
part for the idealized view of life that it presents. Speaking of 
the pastoral, Doctor Johnson says in his ponderous way : ^ 

Our inclination to stillness and tranquillity is seldom much lessened by 
long knowledge of the busy and tumultuary part of the world. In child- 
hood we turn our thoughts to the country, as to the region of pleasure ; 
we recur to it in old age as a port of rest, and perhaps with that second- 
ary and adventitious gladness, which every man feels on reviewing 
those places, or recollecting those occurrences, that contributed to his 
youthful enjoyments, and' bring him back to the prime of life, when the 
world was gay with the bloom of novelty, when mirth wantoned at his 
side, and hope sparkled before him. 

Probably Doctor Johnson was entirely right about the perennial 
charm of the pastoral and in his theory that its charm is potent 
in the direct ratio to the square of the distance that separates 
the writer and reader from rural life itself. It is not strange, 
therefore, that in the newly awakened interest in the classics that 
characterized the Renaissance, when literature was so largely a 

1 Dr. Johnson defines a pastoral as " the representation of an action or passion 
by its effects upon a country life." See The Rambler^ Nos. 36 and 37. 

2 The Rambler, No. 36. See also Steele's essays on the pastoral in The 
Guardian, Nos. 22, 23, 28, 30, 32. No. 22 is particularly interesting, because in 
it Steele assigns three causes for the popularity of the pastoral form, — man's 
love of ease, his love of simplicity, and his love of the country. Pope's remarks 
on the pastoral, which may be found in The Guardian, No. 40, are also worth 
referring to in this connection. 



INTRODUCTION Xl 

product of city culture, the revival of the pastoral should have 
been one of the first manifestations of the earlier Renaissance 
humanism. 

Spanish Influence. Even when all due credit has been given 
to the charm of the pastoral romance, it still remains doubtful 
whether the influence of the Greek and Latin classics alone 
is sufficient to explain its vogue in the Elizabethan age. Their 
influence, though undoubtedly great, was scarcely sufficient to 
account for the naturalization in England of so exotic a form as 
the pastoral. Indeed the pastoral never was thoroughly natural- 
ized, remaining to the end somewhat alien to its English surround- 
ings. Shepherds with their oaten pipes were never quite at home 
in the English climate, which is ill suited to life in the open, to 
loose tunics, and bare limbs.^ It is doubtful whether the pastoral 
would have become popular in England without the stimulus fur- 
nished by contemporary European literature. Most influential of 
these contemporary influences was the '' Diana Enamorada," pub- 
lished about 1558, a Spanish pastoral romance written by Jorge 
de Montemayor, a Portuguese by birth, a Spaniard by adop- 
tion. Although the English translation of the ^^ Diana " did not 
appear until 1598,^ it was well known to Sidney, who trans- 
lated parts of it, and imitated it in his " Arcadia " (1590), and to 
Greene, whose '' Menaphon," also an imitation of the '' Diana,'' 
had appeared in 1589, the year before '' Rosalynde." Though 
it is entirely possible that Lodge may have imitated Greene, it 
is probable that he, like Greene, had read the '' Diana,'' for it 
is certain that he knew Spanish,^ as well as French and Italian, 

1 Steele, speaking of the pastoral {The Gua7'dia7t^ No. 30), says, "The dif- 
ference of the climate is also to be considered, for what is proper in Arcadia, or 
even in Italy, might be quite absurd in a colder country." 

2 Though not published till '1598, Bartholomew Young's translation of the 
" Diana" was made in 1583. 

3 In the epistle To the Gentlemen Readers, prefixed to " A Margarite of 
America," he tells us that he read the original of that story "in the Library 
of the Jesuits in Sanctum ... in the Spanish tongue." 



xii ROSALYNDE 

and the ^* Diana '' was already, it is said,^ the most popular 
book in Europe. 

Style : Euphuistic. Nor was Lodge more original in his man- 
ner than in his matter. His style is that of the euphuists. John 
Lyly's " Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit '' (1579), and its sequel 
"Euphues and His England". (1580), had set a fashion that was 
destined for the next two decades to enjoy a tremendous vogue. 
Lyly's was the first conspicuous example in English of the at- 
tempt to achieve an ornate and rather fantastic style. The re- 
sult became known as euphuism, and those who employed it as 
euphuists. In its essential features it consists of three distinct 
mannerisms : a balance of phrases, an elaborate system of allit- 
eration, and a profusion oT similes taken from fabulous natural 
history. Regarding the euphuistic use of balance. Dr. Land- 
mann says of Lyly's prose : ^ '^ We have here the most elabo- 
rate antithesis not only of well balanced clauses, but also of words, 
often even of sentences. . . . Even when he uses a single sen- 
tence he opposes the words within the clause to each other. " 

Of this balance Lodge's ^^ Rosalynde " affords abundant illus- 
tration. Such a succession of sentences as that on page 7, where 
each sentence is composed of balanced clauses, is a striking but 
by no means unique example. Usually the contrasted words 
begin with the same letter or sound, as in the sentences just 
cited, where the alliteration appears to be employed to empha- 
size the contrast. Often the alliteration serves merely for orna- 
ment, as in the sentence : '^ It is she, O gentle swain, it is she, 
that saint it is whom I serve, that goddess at whose shrine I do 
bend all my devotions ; the most fairest of all fairs, the phoenix 
of all that sex, and the purity of all earthly perfection." 

The euphuistic similes were of three kinds. First, there were 
those drawn from familiar natural objects, such as, '' Happily 

1 Jusserand, " The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare," p. 236. 

2 In " Shakspere and Euphuism," Transactions of the Neiv Shakspere Society^ 
1880-1882. 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

she resembleth the rose, that is sweet but full of prickles." 
Secondly, there are those taken from classical history and 
mythology, like these : ''Is she some nymph that waits upon 
Diana's train, .... or is she some shepherdess .... whose 
name thou shadowest in covert under the figure of Rosalynde, 
as Ovid did Julia under the name of Corinna ? " Thirdly, there 
are those similes most characteristic of euphuism, though less 
commonly found than the two kinds just mentioned, namely, 
those drawn from '^ unnatural natural history." Such- are the 
comparisons to '^ the serpent Regius that hath scales as glorious 
as the sun and a breath as infectious as aconitum is deadly," 
to '' the hyena, most guileful when she mourns," to '' the colors 
of a polype which changes at the sight of every object," and to 
'' the Sethin leaf that never wags but with a southeast wind." 

One of the Last Examples of Euphuism. When Lodge wrote 
'' Rosalynde," euphuism was already on the wane. Even among 
Lodge's contemporaries the fashion was becoming an object of 
frequent ridicule. Thus Warner, in his ''Albion's England" 
(1589), complains in the preface, which, by the way, is written 
wholly in the euphuistic manner: ''Onely this error may be 
thought hatching in our English, that to runne on the letter 
we often runne from the matter : and being over prodigall in 
similes we become less profitable in sentences and more pro- 
lixious to sense." 

By 1627 euphuism had become an obsolete fashion. In that 
year Drayton wrote of Sidney that he 

did first reduce 
Our tongue from Lillies writing then in use : 
Talking of Stones, Stars, Plants, of Fishes, Flyes, 
Playing with words and idle Similies 
As th' EngHsh Apes and very Zanies be 
Of everything that they doe heare and see, 
So imitating his ridiculous tricks, 
They spake and writ like meere lunatiques. 



xiv ROSALYNDE 

'' Rosalynde " marks the end of the unquestioned supremacy 
of euphuism as a literary mode. It was the last book of 
any importance to employ the style that Lyly had made so 
popular. 

T/ie Charm of the Book. In spite of the conventionality in- 
separable from the pastoral form, and the obvious artificiality of 
the style in which it is written, '' Rosalynde " is really charming. 
Its charm is much like that of Watteau's landscapes. Like them, 
it is an idyll in court dress, a fete elegante^ a kind of elegant 
picnic. Yet, like Watteau's pictures it is of more than merely 
historic interest, for it is far more than simply a reminder of 
the fopperies of a vanished time. There is in it, as in the paint- 
ings, a lightness and daintiness of coloring, and an indescribable 
air of freshness that have made the romance appeal to poets 
as the work of Watteau has appealed to painters. Shakespeare 
felt its charm so much that he made it the basis of the plot of 
'^ As You Like It." That it became one of his " sources '' has 
injured it incalculably in the popular estimation. It has be-\ 
come a commonplace of criticism to declare that '' Rosalynde's ^^\ 
chief title to be remembered is its having furnished a hint to' 
Shakespeare. As a matter of fact, however, it had, to use John- 
son's phrase, ^^ enough wit to keep it sweet," even without Shake- 
speare's play "to preserve it from putrefaction." Lodge really 
had a pretty story to tell, and he tells it, if not with gusto, at least 
with grace and with some degree of skill. Exquisitely graceful 
, are some of the narrative passages, where the very words seem 
to possess a clear and pellucid quality like the water of the spring 
that Rosalynde and Aliena found in Arden, '' so crystalline and 
clear, that it seemed Diana and her Dryades and Hamadryades 
had that spring, as the secret of all their bathings."^ Such, for 
instance, is the account of the night and morning succeeding the 
first meeting of Rosalynde and Rosader in the Forest of Arden. ^ 

1 p. 31. 2 Pp. 58 and 60. 



INTRODUCTION XV 

Graceful, too, are the descriptions of the landscapes in Arden, 
such as that of the '' fair valley " where Rosalynde and Aliena 
found Montanus and Cory don '^ seeing their sheep feed, playing 
on their pipes many pleasant tunes, and from music and melody 
falling into much amorous chat." So charmingly graceful are 
these descriptions that, together with Shakespeare, Lodge has 
I made the Forest of Arden almost as much the accepted home 
of the pastoral as Sicily and Arcadia ^ had been hitherto. 

Lodge's Skill as a Story-telhr. To say that Lodge is a skillful 
as well as a graceful story-teller is, of course, to make an in- 
defensible assertion. In the sixteenth century English fiction 
j was still in its infancy, and English prose was still undeveloped. 
Yet we do find in Lodge certain qualities of style that show 
clearly an advance over the formlessness of some of the stories 
' that had preceded. Though the sentence and paragraph struc- 
\ ture is loose and amorphous, the transitions from one subject to 
I another are almost invariably well made, or at least are clearly 
marked. Phrases such as, '' But leaving him so desirous of the 
journey, to Torismond " ^ ; '^ Leaving her to her new entertained 
fancies, again to Rosader '' ^ ; '' where we leave them, and 
return again to Torismond '' ^ ; show clearly a growing regard 
for the value of clear arrangement, to which the earlier roman- 
cers had been indifferent. In the avoidance of digressions, too. 
Lodge's style is an improvement upon that of his predeces- 
i sors, and even upon that of most of his contemporaries.^ The 
story moves along, if not rapidly, at least continuously from 
start to finish. There is a gratifying lack of such preposterous 
complications and tortuous windings as we meet with in the 
plot of Greene's '^ Menaphon," for example, where it sometimes' 

1 Theocritus (283-263 B.C.) localized his " Idyls " in Sicily ; Vergil (70-19 B.C.), 
his " Eclogues " in Arcadia. 

2 P. 12. 3 p. 17. 4 p. -o. See, also, pp. 19, 41, 51, 59, -j^, 97, 104. 

5 On page 72 Lodge accuses himself of digressing ; but the four lines in which 
he here anticipates the conclusion of the story seem not to warrant the charge. 



xvi ROSALYNDE 

seems doubtful whether the characters ever will emerge from so 
mazy a labyrinth of plot, and where the reader is bewildered 
by the almost complete lack of unity in the story. 

The Lyrical Interludes, Lodge's spirit is essentially poetical. 
One feels that his way of looking at things is that of a true 
poet ; of one, that is, who sees beneath the shows of things. 
Lodge saw as clearly as Shakespeare did that only love can un- 
tie the knot that selfishness has tied. And not only is Lodge a 
poet in his outlook on life, but also in the narrower sense of the 
word, for he is one of the sweetest singers of all that band of 
choristers that filled the spacious times of great Elizabeth with 
sounds that echo still. The voices of some were more resonant 
or more impassioned ; few, if any, were sweeter. Such a song 
as Rosalynde^s Madrigal^ beginning, 

Love in my bosom, like a bee 
Doth suck his sweet : 

is as fluent, as graceful, and. as melHfluous as anything that 
appeared in that marvelously productive time. Lodge's poetic 
interludes impress one not only by their eas}^ grace and sweet- 
ness, but by their melody as well. They possess that truly lyric 
quality that Burns's songs exhibit to such a marked degree. 
They seem to sing themselves. It is almost impossible to read 
aloud the best of them, such as, 

Like to the clear in highest sphere 
• Where all imperial glory shines, 
Of selfsame color is her hair, 
Whether unfolded or in twines : 
Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde ! 

without setting them unconsciously to a kind of tune, so essen- 
tially musical are the lines. In their wonderful harmony these 
lyrics remind one of Burns, but in the radiant and ethereal qual- 
ity of their phrasing they inevitably recall Shelley. Furthermore, 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

these songs illustrate the fact that the Elizabethan lyric had 
its origin in culture, not among the people, and that the chief 
sources of its inspiration were Italian and" French. In a series 
of lyrics inserted into the text of ''A Margarite of America," ^ 
Lodge avowedly imitates the Italian poets Dolce, Pascale, and 
Mantelli, while in another passage in the same^ book ^ he ex- 
presses his unbounded admiration for the French poet Des- 
portes, and his belief '^ that few men are able to second the 
sweet conceits of Philippe Desportes/' His ^^ sweet conceits " 
are imitated, we are told, in Montanus's song on page 29, and 
again in Rosader's So?inef^ on page 62. In his borrowings 
Lodge merely followed a prevalent fashion. The early English 
Elizabethan lyric was wholly experimental and imitative — the 
product of foreign influences, predominantly Italian and French ; 
and in this respect Lodge's are entirely typical. 

Hisi^ -'ical Sig?ii/ica?ice. Historically the book is interesting as 
one of the predecessors of the modern novel. But we need to 
keep in mind that it is really a- precursor of the novel and not 
the thing itself. We have no right, therefore, to demand a well- 
constructed plot or skill in characterization, because these did 
not appear in English fiction till a much later time. It was two 
centuries before the novel, in the time of Richardson, came jnto 
being ; and it would be manifestly absurd to expect to find in 
'' Rosalynde '' an anticipation either of Scott's dramatic skill in 
plot construction or of George Eliot's clairvo; ....^ that divines 
the interior play of passion. All that we can reasonably ask is 
that there be a coherent story told with imaginative skill. In 
this we are not disappointed. Tiie" narrative moves rapidly, at 
least in the earlier part^of the story ; and, though in the latter 
part the setting seems from a modern point of view over- 
emphasized, it is so charmingly idyllic as alraost, if not quite, to 
justify the over-emphasis. But Lodge really gives us more than 

1 Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 76 ff. 2 Hunterian Club reprint, p. 79. 



xviii ROSALYNDE 

we have a right to expect, for, as Mr. Gosse has pointed out,-^ 
we may trace in the book '' certain qualities which have always 
been characteristic of English fiction, a vigorous ideal of conduct,/ 
a love of strength and adventure, an almost quixotic reverence 
for womanhood." 

Shakespeare^ s Dramatization of ^^ Rosalynde^ When Shake- 
speare wrote ^' As You Like It " he did precisely what so many 
dramatists of to-day are blamed for doing, that is, he dramatized 
a well-known novel. Lodge's '^ Rosalynde " was at this time 
(about 1598) in its third edition, and the fact that the story was 
so familiar to the reading public imposed upon Shakespeare 
certain restrictions which he evidently did not feel in dealing 
with material that he took from sources less well known. In the 
case of material drawn from foreign sources he freely altered, 
omitted, or combined different stories as suited the immediate 
purpose of his art. In the dramatization of Lodge's "Rosa- 
lynde " he changed the plot comparatively little, altering it only 
so far as was absolutely necessary to fit it for stage presentation, 
contenting himself with shortening the time of the action, omit- 
ting such incidents as were essentially nondramatic, and adding 
only such characters as would, while making the play more in- 
teresting, not materially change the already familiar story. 

By condensation and omission Shakespeare shortened the 
time of the action, which is several months in the romance, 
to about ten -^'-^^ in the play. This he accomplished by omit- 
ting all the preliminary narrative of the death of Sir John of 
Bordeaux, and the old knight's will ; and by shortening the time 
that elapses in the romance between the brother's quarrel and 
the wrestling, which he makes occur on successive days. A 
similar shortening occurs in the matter of Rosader's flight from 
home. In the play the hero, being warned by Adam, leaves 
immediately after the wrestling, instead of staying to play his 

' "Seventeenth-Century Studies," p. tS, 



INTRODUCTION xix 

part in the rowdyism at Oliver's (Saladyne's) castle. The effect 
of this compression is to make the love plot more prominent. 
The meeting of the two brothers in Arden is also managed 
somewhat differently. Orlando is hurt in rescuing his brother 
from wild beasts, instead of being wounded, as in the romance, 
by rescuing Aliena from a band of robbers. The play ends 
differently from the romance, as befits a comedy, the usurping 
duke being converted instead of being kiHed in battle. 

It was, however, in the characterization that Shakespeare de- 
parted most widely from the romance. The most obvious change 
was in the names of the characters. Rosader appears as Orlando, 
Saladyne as Oliver, Torismond as Duke Frederick, Gerismond 
as the banished Duke, Alinda as Celia, Montanus as Silvius, and 
Corydon is shortened to Corin. Of much greater significance 
than the changes in the names of the characters are the addi- 
tions and changes in the list of dramatis personae. Nine char- 
acters are added outright — Dennis, Le Beau, Amiens, the First 
Lord, Sir Oliver Martext, William, Audrey, Touchstone, and 
Jaques. The latter is most noteworthy. Hazlitt calls him the 
only purely contemplative character Shakespeare ever drew. 
From the beginning to the end of the play he does absolutely 
nothing except to think and moralize. Another critic has said, 
" Shakespeare designed Jaques to be a maker of fine sentiments, 
a dresser forth in sweet language of the ordinary commonplaces. 
. . ." It has been suggested,-^ not without some show of rea- 
son, that Shakespeare in adapting Lodge's romance for the 
stc ge purposely included in the list of drainatis personae a char- 
acter bearing a strong resemblance to Euphues, the pretended 
author of the romance. '^ Like Euphues, Jaques has made false 
steps in youth, which have somewhat darkened his views of life ; 
like Euphues, he conceals under a veil of sententious satire a 
real goodness of heart, shown in his action toward Audrey and 

i Seccoirbe and Allen, "The Age of Shakespeare," Vol. I, p. 119. 



XX ROSALYNDE 

Touchstone. A traveler, like Euphues, he has a melancholy of 
his own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many 
objects, and is prepared, like his prototype, to lecture his con- 
temporaries on every theme.'' 

Scarcely less significant are the changes that Shakespeare 
made in the characteristics of the dramatis personae. The mo- 
tive of the elder brother in mistreating the younger he makes 
envy, not avarice as in the romance, a substitution due to his 
desire to unify the action by drawing a parallel between the 
brothers and the dukes. The superiority of Shakespeare's 
Rosalind to Lodge's delineation of the character has, perhaps, 
been slightly overestimated. To describe Lodge's Rosalynde as 
^^ a colorless being, incapable of entering into the spirit of her 
part "Ms really too severe a condemnation. Of course Lodge's 
heroine does lack the exquisite charm of saucy playfulness cou- 
pled with gentle womanliness that makes Shakespeare's Rosa- 
lind perhaps the most popular heroine of English comedy. Yet 
Lodge furnished to Shakespeare far more than a name for his 
heroine. In the dialogue between Ganymede (Rosalynde) and 
Aliena there is a good deal of lively banter that must have fur- 
nished more than a suggestion for the teasing playfulness of 
Rosalind in the play. Such, for example, is the conversation 
between the two girls upon finding a love poem '' carved on a 
pine tree." ^ As in the drama, Rosalynde's wit is always sharp- 
ened by the presence of her lover. Often her tone of raillery is f 
noticeably similar to that of Shakespeare's heroine.^ 

Upon a careful study of '^Rosalynde" one cannot avoid '^^^ 
conviction that in selecting it as the basis for ''As You Like . ^^ 
Shakespeare displayed a sound judgment. Not only is it a go ^ - 

1 W. G. Stone, Tra7isaciions of the New Shakspere Society, 1880-1886 ' PP* 

277— 2Q'5, 

2 P. 29. Compare the speech of Ganymede (Rosalynde) with T^ ^ 
speech in "As You Like It," III, ii, 367-381. v' i 8 - 

3 Compare " Rosalynde," pp. 63-64, with " As You Like It," V ' ' 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

story of its kind, but it lends itself readily to dramatic adaptation. 
In adapting it Shakespeare made of it something quite different 
and incalculably more valuable than the romance. Yet " Rosa- 
lynde '' is still in its way charming, and an appreciation of its 
charm may, instead of lessening our reverence for Shakespeare's 
genius, really increase it by leading us to see as he did the fresh- 
ness and beauty as well as the dramatic possibilities of the story. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Anglia. Vol. X, pp. 235-289. 

BuLLEN. Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age, Lon- 
don, 1 90 1. 
Chambers. English Pastorals, London, 1906. 
DuNLOP. History of Prose Fiction (revised edition), London and New 

York, 1888. 
GosSE. " Seventeenth-Century Studies " (new edition), London, 1 895. 
Greg. Lodge's ''Rosalynde," being the Original of Shakespeare's 

"As You Like It," London, 1907. 
JusSERAND. The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, London 

and New York, 1890. 
Lang. Idylls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus (Golden Treasury 

Series), London, 1901. 
Lodge. Reprint of Complete Works (excepting the translations 

of Seneca, Josephus, and Du Bartas), Glasgow, 1 875-1 882. 
Marks. English Pastoral Drama, London, 1908. 
Saintsbury. Elizabethan Literature, London and New York, 1902. 
Warren. A History of the Novel, previous to the Seventeenth 

Century, New York, 1895. 



THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF THOMAS LODGE 
ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDERS 

1580 (?) Defence of Plays 

1584 An Alarum against Usurers 

1589 Scillaes Metamorphysis (reprinted with a new title-page in 1610 

as A most pleasant Historie of Glaucus and Scilla) 

1590 Rosalynde 

1 591 Robert, Second Duke of Normandy 

1 59 1 Catharos 

1592 Euphues Shadow 

1593 Phillis 

1593 William Longbeard 

1 594 The Wounds of Civill War 

1 594 A Looking Glass for London (in collaboration with Greene) 

1595 A Fig for Momus 

1 596 The Divel coniured 

1 596 A Margarite of America 

1596 Wits miserie 

1596 Prosopopeia 

1602 Paradoxes 

1602 Works of Josephus 

1603 A Treatise of the Plague 
1 61 4 The Workes of Seneca 

1625 A Learned Summary of Du Bartas 

1 The titles are given in abbreviated form. 



XXll 



Rofalynde. 
Euphues golden le 

gacie: found after his death 

in his Cell at Si- 
lexedra. 

Bequeathed to Philautus fonnes 

nourfed vp with their 

father in Eng- 
land. 

Fetcht from the Canaries. 
By T. L. Gent. 



LONDON, 

Imprinted by Thomas Orwin for T. G, 

and John Busbie. 

1590. 



XXUl 



To the Right Honorable and his most esteemed Loni-the-JLord 
of Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain to her Majesty's Household, 
and Governor of her Town of Berwick : T. L. G. wisheth 
increase of all honorable virtues. 

Such Romans, right honorable, as delighted in martial exploits, 
attempted their actions in the honor of Augustus, because he was a 
patron of soldiers : and Vergil dignified him with his poems, as a 
Maecenas of scholars ; both jointly advancing his royalty, as a prince 
warlike and learned. Such as sacrifice to Pallas, present her with 
bays as she is wise, and with armor as she is valiant; observing 
herein that excellent to irperrov^ which dedicateth honors according to 
the perfection of the person. When I entered, right honorable, with 
a deep insight into the consideration of these premises, seeing your 
Lordship to be a patron of all martial men, and a Maecenas of such 
as apply themselves to study, wearing with Pallas both the lance and 
the bay, and aiming with Augustus at the favor of all, by the honor- 
able virtues of your mind, being myself first a student, and after fall- 
ing from books to arms, even vowed in all my thoughts dutifully to 
affect your Lordship. Having with Captain Clarke made a voyage 
to the island of Terceras and the Canaries, to beguile the time with 
labor I writ this book ; rough, as hatched in the storms of the ocean, 
and feathered in the surges of many perilous seas. But as it is the 
work of a soldier and a scholar, I presumed to shroud it under your 
Honor's patronage, as one that is the fautor and favorer of all virtu- 
ous actions ; and whose honorable loves, grown from the general 
applause of the whole commonwealth for your higher deserts, may 
keep it from the malice of every bitter tongue. Other reasons more 
particular, right honorable, challenge in me a special affection to your 
Lordship, as being a scholar with your two noble sons, Master Ed- 
mund Carew, and Master Robert Carew, two scions worthy of so 
honorable a tree, and a tree glorious in such honorable fruit, as also 

XXV 



xxvi ROSALYNDE 

being scholar in the university under that learned and virtuous knight 
Sir Edward Hoby, when he was Bachelor in Arts, a man as well 
lettered as well born, and, after the etymology of his name, soaring 
as high as the wings of knowledge can mount him, happy every way, 
and the more fortunate, -as blessed in the honor of so virtuous a lady. 
Thus, right honorable, the duty that I owe to the sons, chargeth me 
that all my affection be placed on the father ; for where the branches 
are so precious, the tree of force must be most excellent. Commanded 
and emboldened thus with the consideration of these forepassed rea- 
sons, to present my book to your Lordship, I humbly entreat your 
Honor will vouch of my labors, and favor a soldier's and a scholar's 
pen with your gracious acceptance, who answers in affection what he 
wants in eloquence ; so devoted to your honor, as his only desire is, 
to end his life under the favor of so martial and learned a patron. 

Resting thus in hope of your Lordship's courtesy in deigning 
the patronage of my work, I cease, wishing you as many honorable 
fortunes as your Lordship can desire or I imagine. 

Your Honor's soldier 

■ humbly affectionate : 

Thomas Lodge 



TO THE GENTLEMEN READERS 

Gentlemen, look not here to find any sprigs of Pallas' bay tree, 

nor to hear the humor of any amorous laureate, nor the pleasing 

vein of any eloquent orator : Nolo aituin sapere^ they be matters 

above my capacity : the cobbler's check shall never light on my head, 

N'e SMtor ultra crepidam; I will go no further than the latchet, and 

then all is well. Here you may perhaps find some\eaves of Venus' 

myrtle, but hewn down by a soldier with his cjartal-axe, not bought 

with the allurement of a filed tongue. To be brief, gentlemen, room 

for a soldier and a sailor, that gives you the fruits of his labors that 

he wrote in the ocean, when every line was wet with a surge, and 

every humorous passion counterchecked with a storm. If you like it, 

so ; and yet I will be yours in duty, if you be mine in favor. But if 

Momus or any squint-eyed ass, that hath mighty ears to conceive 

with Midas, and yet little reason to judge ; if he come aboard our 

bark to find fault with the tackling, when he knows not the shrouds, 

I '11 down into the hold, and fetch out a rusty pole-axe, that saw no 

sun this seven year, and either well baste him, or heave the coxcomb 

overboard to feed cods. But courteous gentlemen, that favor most, 

backbite none, and pardon what is overslipped, let such come and 

welcome ; I '11 into the steward's room, and fetch them a can of our 

best beverage. Well, gentlemen, you have Euphues' Legacy. I 

fetched it as far as the island of Terceras, and therefore read it; 

censure with favor, and farewell 

Yours, T. L. 



XXVll 



ROSALYNDE 

There dwelled adjoining to the city of Bordeaux a knight of 
most honorable parentage, whom fortune had grace3rwith many 
favors, and nature honored with sundry exquisite qualities, 
so beautified with the excellence of both, as it was a question 
whether fortune or nature were more prodigal in deciphering 5 
the riches of their bounties. Wise he was, as holding in his head 
a supreme conceit of policy, reaching with Nestor into the depth 
of all civil government ; and to make his wisdom more gracious, 
he had that salem ingenii and pleasant eloquence that was so 
highly commended in Ulysses : his valor was no less than his 10 
wit, nor the stroke of his lance no less forcible than the sweet- 
ness of his tongue was persuasive ; for he was for his courage 
chosen the principal of all the Knights of Malta. This hardy 
knight, thus enriched with virtue and honor, surnamed Sir John 
of Bordeaux, having passed the prime of his youth in sundry 15 
battles against the Turks, at last (as the date of time hath his 
course) grew aged. His hairs were silver-hued, and the map of 
age was figured on his forehead : honor sat in the furrows of 
his face, and many years were portrayed in his wrinkled linea- 
ments, that all men might perceive his glass was run, and that 20 
nature of necessity challenged her due. Sir John, that with 
the Phoenix knew the term of his life was now expired, and 
could, with the swan, discover his end by her songs, having 
three sons by his wife Lynida, the very pride of all his fore- 
passed years, thought now, seeing death by constraint would 25 
compel him to leave them, to bestow upon them such a legacy 
as might bewray his love, and increase their ensuing amity. 
Calling, therefore, these young gentlemen before him, in the 



2 ROSALYNDE 

presence of all his fellow Knights of Malta, he resolved to leave 
them a memorial of all his fatherly care in setting down a method 
of their brotherly duties. Having, therefore, death in his looks 
to move them to pity, and tears in his eyes to paint out the 
5 depth of his passions, taking his eldest son by the hand, he 
. began thus : 

Sir John of Bordeaux' Legacy he gave to his Sons 

^^ O my sons, you see that fate hath set a period of my years, 
and destinies have determined the final end of my days : the 
palm tree waxeth away-ward, for he stoopeth in his height, and 

lo my plumes are full of sick feathers touched with age. I must 
to my grave that discharge th all cares, and leave you to the 
world that increaseth many sorrows : my silver hairs containeth 
great experience, and in the number of my years are penned 
down the subtleties of fortune. Therefore, as I leave you some 

15 fading pelf to countercheck poverty, so I will bequeath you in- 
fallible precepts that shall lead you unto virtue. First, there- 
fore, unto thee Saladyne, the eldest, and therefore the chiefest 
pillar of my house, wherein should be engraven as well the ex- 
cellence of thy father's qualities, as the essential form of his pro- 

20 portion, to thee I give fourteen ploughlands, with all my manor 
houses and richest plate. Next, unto Fernandyne I bequeath 
twelve ploughlands. But, unto Rosader, the youngest, I give 
my horse, my armor, and my lance, with sixteen ploughlands ; 
for if the inward thoughts be discovered by outward shadows, 

25 Rosader will exceed you all in bounty and honor. Thus, my 
sons, have I parted in your portions the -substance of my wealth, 
wherein if you be as prodigal to spend as I have been careful 
to get, your friends will grieve to see you more wasteful than I 
was bountiful, and your foes smile that my fall did begin in 

30 your excess. Let mine honor be the glass of your actions, and 
the fame of my virtues the lodestar to direct the course of your 



ROSALYNDE 3 

pilgrimage. Aim your deeds by my honorable endeavors, and 
show yourselves scions worthy of so flourishing a tree, lest, as 
the birds Halcyones, which exceed in whiteness, I hatch young 
ones that surpass in blackness. Climb not, my sons : aspiring 
pride is a vapor that ascendeth high, but soon turneth to a 5 
smoke ; they which stare at the stars stumble upon stones, and 
such as gaze at the sun (unless they be eagle-eyed) fall blind. 
/ Soar not with the hobby, ^ lest you fall with the lark, nor attempt 
\not with Phaeton, lest you drown with Icarus. Fortune, w^hen 
she wills you to fly, tempers your plumes with wax; and there- 10 
fore either sit still and make no wing, or else beware the sun, 
and hold Daedalus' axiom authentical, medium tenere tutissimum. 
Low shrubs have deep roots, and poor cottages great patience. 
Fortune looks ever upward, and envy aspireth to nestle with 
dignity. Take heed, my sons, the mean is sweetest melody ; 15 
where strings high stretched, either soon crack, or quickly grow- 
out of tune. Let your country's care be your heart's content, 
and think that you are not born for yourselves, but to level 
your thoughts to be loyal to your prince, careful for the com- 
mon weal, and faithful to your friends ; so shall France say, 20 
^ These men are as excellent in virtues as they be exquisite in 
features.' O my sons, a friend is a precious jewel, within whose 
bosom you may unload your sorrows and unfold your secrets, 
and he either will relieve with counsel, or persuade with reason : 
but take heed in the choice: the outward show makes not the 25 
inward man, nor are the dimples in the face the calendars of 
truth. When the liquorice leaf looketh most dry, then it is most 
wet : when the shores of Lepanthus are most quiet, then they 
forepoint a storm. The Baaran leaf the more fair it looks, the 
more infectious it is, and in the sweetest words is oft hid the 30 
most treachery. Therefore, my sons, choose ' a friend as the 
Hyperborei do the metals, sever them from the ore with fire, 

1 falcon. 



4 ROSALYNDE 

and let them not bide the stamp before they be current : so try 
and then trust, let time be touchstone of friendship, and then 
friends faithful lay them up for jewels. Be valiant, my sons, for 
cowardice is the enemy to honor ; but not too rash, for that is 
5 an extreme. Fortitude is the mean, and that is limited within 
bonds, and prescribed with circumstance. But above all," and 
with that he fetched a deep sigh, '^ beware of love, for it is far 
more perilous than pleasant, and yet, I tell you, it allureth as ill 
as the Sirens. O my sons, fancy is a fickle thing, and beauty's 

10 paintings are tricked up with time's colors, which, being set to 
dry in the sun, perish with the same. Venus is a wanton, and 
though her laws pretend liberty, yet there is nothing but \oss^ 
and glistering misery. Cupid's wings are plumed with the 
feathers of vanity, and his arrows, where they pierce, enforce \ 

15 nothing but deadly desires : a woman's eye, as it is precious to ^ 
behold, so is it prejudicial to gaze upon ; for as it affordeth de- 
light, so it snareth unto death. Trust not their fawning favors, 
for their loves are like the breath of a man upon steel, which 
no sooner lighteth on but it leapeth off, and their passions are 

20 as momentary as the colors of a polype, which change th at the 
sight of every object. My breath waxeth short, and mine eyes 
dim : the hour is come, and I must away : therefore let this 
suffice, women are wantons, and yet men cannot want one : and 
therefore, if you love, choose her that hath eyes of adamant, 

25 that will turn only to one point ; her heart of a diamond, that 
will receive but one form ; her tongue of a Sethin leaf, that 
never wags but with a south-east wind : and yet, my sons, if she 
have all these qualities, to be chaste, obedient, and silent, yet 
for that she is a woman, shalt thou find in her sufficient vanities 

30 to countervail her virtues. Oh now, my sons, even now take 
these my last words as my latest legacy, for my thread is spun, 
and my foot is in the grave. Keep my precepts as memorials of 
your father's counsels, and let them be lodged in the secret of 



ROSALYNDE 5 

your hearts ; for wisdom is better than wealth, and a golden 
sentence worth a world of treasure. In my fall see and mark, 
my sons, the folly of man, that being dust climbeth with Biares 
to reach at the heavens, and ready every minute to die, yet 
hopeth for an age of pleasures. Oh, man's life is like lightning 5 
that is but a flash, and the longest date of his years but as a 
bavin's ^ blaze. Seeing then man is so mortal, be careful that thy 
life be virtuous, that thy death may be full of admirable honors : 
so shalt thou challenge fame to be thy fautor,^ and put oblivion 
to exile with thine honorable actions. But, my sons, lest you 10 
should forget your father's axioms, take this scroll, wherein read 
what your father dying wills you to execute living." At this he s^ 
shrunk down in his bed, and gave up the ghost. 

John of Bordeaux being thus dead was greatly lamented of 
his sons, and bewailed of his friends, especially of his fellow 15 
Knights of Malta, who attended on his funerals, which were 
performed with great solemnity. His obsequies done, Saladyne 
caused, next his epitaph, the contents of the scroll to be por- 
trayed out, which were to this effect: 

The Contents of the Schedule which Sir John of Bordeaux 
gave to his Sons 

My sons, behold what portion I do give : 20 

I leave you goods, but they are quickly lost ; 

I leave^ advice, io~schooI you how to live ; 
I leave you wit, but won with little cost ; 

But keep it well, for counsel still is one, 

When father, friends, and worldly goods are gone. 25 

In choice of thrift let honor be thy gain, 

Win it by virtue and by manly might ; 
In doing good esteem thy toil no pain ; 

Protect the fatherless and widow's right : 
Fight for thy faith, thy country, and thy king, -^o 

For why ? this thrift will prove a blessed thing. 

1 faggot's. 2 patron. 



6 ROSALYNDE 

In choice of wife, prefer the modest-chaste ; 

LiHes are fair in show, but foul in smell : 
The sweetest looks by age are soon defaced ; 

Then choose thy wife by wit and living well. 
5 Who brings thee wealth and many faults withal, 

Presents thee honey mixed with bitter gall. 

In choice of friends, beware of light belief ; 

A painted tongue may shroud a subtle heart;- 
The Siren's tears do threaten 'mickle grief ; 
10 Foresee, my son, for fear of sudden smart : 

Choose in thy wants, and he that friends thee then, 
When richer grown, befriend thou him agen. 

Learn with the ant in summer to provide ; 

Drive with the bee the drone from out thy hive : 
1 5 Build like the swallow in the summer tide ; 

Spare not too much, my son, but sparing thrive : 
Be poor in folly, rich in all but sin : 
So by thy death thy glory shall begin. 

Saladyne having thus set up the schedule, and hanged about 

20 his father's hearse many passionate poems, that France might 

suppose him to be passing sorrowful, he clad himself and his 

brothers all in black, and in such sable suits discoursed his grief : 

but as the hyena when she mourns is then most guileful, so 

Saladyne under this show of grief shadowed a heart full of con- 

25 tented thoughts : the tiger, though he hide his claws, will at last 

discover his rapine : the lion's looks are not the maps of his 

meaning, nor a man's physnomy is not the display of his secrets. 

Fire cannot be hid in the straw, nor the nature of man so 

concealed, but at last it will have his course : nurture and art 

30 may do much, but that natura naturans^ which by propagation 

is ingrafted in the heart, will be at last perforce predominant 

according to the old verse : 

Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret. 

So fared it with Saladyne, for after a month's mourning was 
35 passed, he fell to consideration of his father's testament ; how 



ROSALYNDE 7 

he had bequeathed more to his younger brothers than himself, 
that Rosader was his father's darling, but now under his tuition, 
that as yet they were not come to years, and he being their 
guardian, might, if not defraud them of their due, yet make such 
havoc of their legacies and lands, as they should be a great deal 5 
the lighter : whereupon he began thus to meditate with himself : 

Saladyne's Meditation with Himself 

" Saladyne, how art thou disquieted in thy thoughts, and per- 
plexed with a world of restless passions, having thy mind trou- 
bled with the tenor of thy father's testament, and thy heart fired 
with the hope of present preferment! By the one thou art lo 
counselled to content thee with thy fortunes, by the other per- 
suaded to aspire to higher wealth. Riches, Saladyne, is a great 
royalt}^, and there is no sweeter physic than store. Avicen, 
like a fool, forgot in his Aphorisms to say that gold was the 
most precious restorative, and that treasure was the most 15 
excellent medicine of the mind. O Saladyne, what, were thy 
father's precepts breathed into the wind ? hast thou so soon 
forgotten his principles ? did he not warn thee from coveting 
without honor, and climbing without virtue ? did he not forbid 
thee to aim at any action that should not be honorable ? and 20 
what will be more prejudicial to thy credit, than the careless 
ruin of thy brothers' welfare ^ why, shouldst not thou be the 
pillar of thy brothers' prosperity ? and wilt thou become the sub- 
version of their fortunes ? is there any sweeter thing than 
concord, or a more precious jew^el than amity ? are you not sons 25 
of one father, scions of one tree, birds of one nest, and wilt 
thou become so unnatural as to rob them, whom thou shouldst 
relieve ? No, Saladyne, entreat them with favors, and entertain 
them with love, so shalt thou have thy conscience clear and thy 
renown excellent. Tush, what words are these, base fool, far 30 
unfit (if thou be wise) for thy humor ? What though thy father 



8 ROSALYNDE 

at his death talked of many frivolous matters, as one that doated 
for age and raved in his sickness ; shall his words be axioms, and 
his talk be so authentical, that thou wilt, to observe them, prej- 
udice thyself ? No no, Saladyne, sick men's wills that are parole ^ 
5 and have neither hand nor seal, are like the laws of a city written 
in dust, which are broken with the blast of every wind. What, 
man, thy father is dead, and he can neither help thy fortunes, 
nor measure thy actions ; therefore bury his words with his car- 
case, and be wise for thyself. What, 't is not so old as true, 

lo Non sapit, qui sibi non sapit. 

Thy brother is young, keep him now in awe ; make him not 
checkmate ^ with thyself, for 

Nimia familiaritas contemptum parit. 

Let him know little, so shall he not be able to execute much: 

1 5 suppress his wits with a base estate, and though he be a gentle- 
man by nature, yet form him anew, and make him a peasant by 
nurture : so shalt thou keep him as a slave, and reign thyself 
sole lord over all thy father's possessions. As for Fernandyne, 
thy middle brother, he is a scholar and hath no mind but 

2o on Aristotle : let him read on Galen while thou riflest ^ with 
gold, and pore on his book till thou dost purchase lands : wit 
is great wealth ; if he have learning it is enough : and so let 
all rest." 

In this humor was Saladyne, making his brother Rosader 

25 his foot-boy, for the space of two or three years, keeping him in 
such servdie subjection, as if he had been the son of any country 
vassal. The young gentleman bore all with patience, till on a 
day, walking in the garden by himself, he began to consider how 
he was the son of John of Bordeaux, a knight renowmed for 

30 many victories, and a gentleman famosed for his virtues ; how, 
contrary to the testament of his father, he was not only kept 
1 oral. 2 equal. 3 gamble, cf. modem " raffle." 



ROSALYNDE 9 

from his land and entreated as a servant, but smothered in such 
secret slavery, as he might not attain to any honorable actions. 

^^Ah," quoth he to himself, nature working these effectual 
passions, ^^ why should I, that am a gentleman born, pass my 
time in such unnatural drudgery ? were it not better either in 5 
Paris to become a scholar, or in the court a courtier, or in the field 
a soldier, than to live a foot-boy to my own brother ? Nature 
hath lent me wit to conceive, but my brother denied me art to 
contemplate : I have strength to perform any honorable exploit, 
but no liberty to accomplish my virtuous, endeavors : those good 10 
parts that God hath bestowed upon me, the envy of my brother 
doth smother in obscurity ; the harder is my fortune, and the 
more his frowardness." 

With that casting up his hand he felt hair on his face, and 
perceiving his beard to bud, for choler he began to blush, and 15 
swore to himself he would be no more subject to such slavery. 
As thus he was ruminating of his melancholy passions, in came 
Saladyne with his men, and seeing his brother in a brown study, 
and to forget his wonted reverence, thought to shake him out 
of his dumps ^ thus : 20 

^^ Sirrah," quoth he, " what is your heart on your halfpenny,^ 
or are you saying a dirge for your father's soul ? What, is my 
dinner ready ? " 

At this question Rosader, turning his head askance, and 
bending his brows as if anger there had ploughed the furrows of 25 
her wrath, with his eyes full of fire, he made this reply : 

'^ Dost thou ask me, Saladyne, for thy cates ? ^ ask some of 
thy churls who are fit for such an office : I am thine equal by 
nature, though not by birth, and though thou hast more cards 
in the bunch,^ I have as many trumps in my hands as thyself. 30 
Let me question with thee, why thou hast felled my woods, 
spoiled my manor houses, and made havoc of such utensils as 

1 revery. 2 " You have a particular object in view." — Greg. 3 food. ^ pack. 



lO ROSALYNDE 

my father bequeathed unto me ? I tell thee, Saladyne, either 
answer me as a brother, or I will trouble thee as an enemy." 

At this reply of Rosader's Saladyne smiled as laughing at 
his presumption, and frowned as checking his folly : he there- 
5 fore took him up thus shortly : 

'^ What, sirrah ! well I see early pricks the tree that will prove 
a thorn : hath my familiar conversing with you made you coy,^ 
or my good looks drawn you to be thus contemptuous ? I can 
quickly remedy such a fault, and I will bend the tree while it is 

lo a wand. In faith, sir boy, I have a snaffle for such a headstrong 
colt. You, sirs, lay hold on him and bind him, and then I will 
give him a cooling card for his choler." 

This made Rosader half mad, that stepping to a great rake 
that stood in the garden, he laid such load upon ^ his brother's 

15 men that he hurt some of them, and made the rest of them 
run away. Saladyne, seeing Rosader so resolute and with his 
resolution so valiant, thought his heels his best safety, and 
took him to a loft adjoining to the garden, whither Rosader 
pursued him hotly. Saladyne, afraid of his brother's fury, cried 

20 out to him thus : 

" Rosader, be not so rash : I am thy brother and thine elder, 
and if I have done thee wrong I '11 make thee amends : revenge 
not anger in blood, for so shalt thou stain the virtue of old Sir 
John of Bordeaux : say wherein thou art discontent and thou 

25 shalt be satisfied. Brothers' frowns ought not to be periods of 
wrath : what, man, look not so sourly ; I know we shall be 
friends, and better friends than we have been, for, Amantium 
ira amoris redintegratio estT 

These words appeased the choler of Rosader, for he was of 

30 a mild and courteous nature, so that he laid down his weapons, 
and upon the faith of a gentleman assured his brother he would 
offer him no prejudice : whereupon Saladyne came down, and 

1 conceited. 2 beat. 



ROSALYNDE II 

after a little parley they embraced each other and became 
friends ; and Saladyne promising Rosader the restitution of all 
his lands, '' and what favor else," quoth he, '' any ways my 
ability or the nature of a brother may perform." Upon these 
sugared reconciliations they went into the house arm in arm 5 
together, to the great content of all the old servants of Sir John 
of Bordeaux. 

Thus continued the pad ^ hidden in the straw,, till it chanced 
that Torismond, king of France, had appointed for his pleasure 
a day of wrastling and of tournament to busy his commons' ic 
heads, lest, being idle, their thoughts should run upon more se- 
rious matters, and call to remembrance their old banished king ; 
a champion there was to stand against all comers, a Norman, a 
man of tall stature and of great strength; so valiant, that in 
many such conflicts he always bare away the victory, not only 15 
overthrowing them which he encountered, but often with the 
weight of his body killing them outright. Saladyne hearing of 
this, thinking now not to let the ball fall to the ground, but to 
take opportunity by the forehead, first by secret means con- 
vented ^ with the Norman, and procured him with rich rewards 20 
to swear that if Rosader came within his claws he should never 
more return to quarrel with Saladyne for his possessions. The 
Norman desirous of pelf — as Quis nisi mentis inops oblatum 
respiiit aurum ? — taking great gifts for little gods, took the 
crowns of Saladyne to perform the stratagem. 25 

Having thus the champion tied to his villainous determina- 
tion by oath, he prosecuted the intent of his purpose thus. He 
went to young Rosader, who in all his thoughts reached at 
honor, and gazed no lower than virtue commanded him, and 
began to tell him of this tournament and wrastling, how the 30 
king should be there, and all the chief peers of France, with 
all the beautiful damoselsof the country. 

1 toad. 2 met. 



12 ROSALYNDE 

" Now, brother/' quoth he, '' for the honor of Sir John of 
Bordeaux, our renowmed father, to famous that house that never 
hath been found without men approved in chivalry, show thy 
resolution to be peremptory.^ For myself thou knowest, though 
5 I am eldest by birth, yet never having attempted any deeds of 
arms, I am youngest to perform any martial exploits, knowing 
better how to survey my lands than to charge my lance : my 
brother Fernandyne he is at Paris poring on a few papers, hav- 
ing more insight into sophistry and principles of philosophy, 

lo than any warlike endeavors ; but thou, Rosader, the youngest 
in years but the eldest in valor, art a man of strength, and 
darest do what honor allows thee. Take thou my father's lance, 
his sword, and his horse, and hie thee to the tournament, and 
either there valiantly crack a spear, or try with the Norman for 

15 the palm of activity." 

The words of Saladyne were but spurs to a free horse, for 
he had scarce uttered them, ere Rosader took him in his arms, 
taking his proffer so kindly, that he promised in what he might 
to requite his courtesy. The next morrow was the day of the 

20 tournament, and Rosader was so desirous to show his heroical 
thoughts that he passed the night with little sleep ; but as soon 
as Phoebus had vailed the curtain of the night, and made Aurora 
blush with giving her the bezo les labres ^ in her silver couch, he 
gat him up, and taking his leave of his brother, mounted him- 

25 self towards the place appointed, thinking every mile ten leagues 
till he came there. 

But leaving him so desirous of the journey, to Torismond, 
the king of France, who having by force banished Gerismond, 
their lawful king, that lived as an outlaw in the forest of Arden, 

30 sought now by all means to keep the French busied with all 
sports that might breed their content. Amongst the rest he had 
appointed this solemn tournament, whereunto he in most solemn 

1 stedfast. 2 kiss. 



ROSALYNDE 1 3 

manner resorted, accompanied with the twelve peers of France, 
who, rather for fear than love, graced him with the show of their 
dutiful favors. To feed their eyes, and to make the beholders 
pleased with the sight of most rare and glistering objects, he 
had appointed his own daughter Alinda to be there, and the fair 5 
Rosalynde, daughter unto Gerismond, with all the beautiful dam- 
osels that were famous for their features in all France. Thus 
in that place did love and war triumph in a sympathy ; for such 
as were martial might use their lance to be renowmed for the 
excellence of their chivalry, and such as were amorous might 10 
glut themselves with gazing on the beauties of most heavenly 
creatures. As every man's eye had his several survey, and fancy 
was partial in their looks, yet all in general applauded the ad- 
mirable riches that nature bestowed on the face of Rosalynde ; 
for upon her cheeks there seemed a battle between the Graces, 1 5 
who should bestow most favors to make her excellent. The ^;^ 
blush that gloried Luna, when she kissed the shepherd on the ^ 
hills of Latmos, was not tainted with such a pleasant dye as 
the vermilion flourished on the silver hue of Rosalynde's coun- 
tenance : her eyes were like those lamps that make the wealthy 20 
covert of the heavens more gorgeous, sparkling favor and dis- 
dain, courteous and yet coy, as if in them Venus had placed all 
her amorets, and Diana all her chastity. The trammels of her 
hair, folded in a caul ^ of gold, so far surpassed the burnished 
glister of the metal, as the sun doth the meanest star in bright- 25 
ness : the tresses that folds in the brows of Apollo were not half 
so rich to the sight, for in her hairs it seemed love had laid her- 
self in ambush, to entrap the proudest eye that durst gaze upon 
their excellence : what should I need to decipher her particular 
beauties, when by the censure of all she was the paragon of all 30 
earthly perfection ? This Rosalynde sat, I say, with Alinda as 
a beholder of these sports, and made the cavaliers crack their 

1 cap of open work. 



14 ROSALYNDE 

lances with more courage : many deeds of knighthood that day 
were performed, and many prizes were given according to their 
several deserts. 

At last, when the tournament ceased, the wrastling began, 
5 and the Norman presented himself as a challenger against all 
comers, but he looked like Hercules when he advanced himself 
against Achelous, so that the fury of his countenance amazed 
all that durst attempt to encounter with him in any deed of 
activity : till at last a lusty franklin of the country came with 

10 two tall men that were his sons, of good lineaments and comely 
personage. The eldest of these doing his obeisance to the king 
entered the list, and presented himself to the Norman, who 
straight coped with him, and as a man that would triumph in 
the glory of his strength, roused himself with such fury, that 

15 not only he gave him the fall, but killed him with the weight of 
his corpulent personage : which the younger brother seeing, 
leaped presently into the place, and thirsty after the revenge, 
assailed the Norman with such valor, that at the first encounter 
he brought him to his knees ; which repulsed so the Norman, 

20 that, recovering himself, fear of disgrace doubling his strength, 
he stepped so sternly to the young franklin, that taking him up 
in his arms he threw him against the ground so violently, that 
he broke his neck, and so ended his days with his brother. At 
this unlooked for massacre the people murmured, and were all 

25 in a deep passion of pity ; but the franklin, father unto these, 
never changed his countenance, but as a man of a courageous 
resolution took up the -bodies of his sons without show of out- 
ward discontent. 

All this while stood Rosader and saw this tragedy ; who, 

30 noting the undoubted virtue ^ of the franklin's mind, alighted off 
from his horse, and presently sate down on the grass, and com- 
manded his boy to pull off his boots, making him ready to try 

1 courage. 



ROSALYNDE 1 5 

the strength of this champion. Being furnished as he would, he 
clapped the franklin on the shoulder and said thus : 

'' Bold yeoman, whose sons have ended the term of their years 
with honor, for that I see thou scornest fortune with patience, 
and thwartest the injury of fate with content in brooking the 5 
death of thy sons, stand awhile, and either see me make a third 
in their tragedy, or else revenge their fall with an honorable 
triumph.'' 

The franklin, seeing so goodly a gentleman to give him such 
courteous comfort, gave him hearty thanks, with promise to lo 
pray for his happy success. With that Rosader vailed bonnet 
to the king, and lightly leaped within the lists, where noting 
more the company than the combatant, he cast his eye upon 
the troop of ladies that glistered there like the stars of heaven ; 
but at last. Love, willing to make him as amorous as he was 15 
valiant, presented him with the sight of Rosalynde, whose admi- 
rable beauty so inveigled the eye of Rosader, that forgetting 
himself, he stood and fed his looks on the favor of Rosalynde's 
face ; which she perceiving blushed, which was such a doubling 
of her beauteous excellence, that the bashful red of Aurora at 20 
the sight of unacquainted Phaeton, was not half so glorious. 

The Norman seeing this young gentleman fettered in the 
looks of the ladies drave him out of his memento ^ with a shake 
by the shoulder. Rosader looking back with an angry frown, as 
if he had been wakened from some pleasant dream, discovered 25 
to all by the fury of his countenance that he was a man of some 
high thoughts : but when they all noted his youth and the sweet- 
ness of his visage, with a general applause of favors, they grieved 
that so goodly a young man should venture in so base an action ; 
but seeing it were to his dishonor to hinder him from his enter- 30 
prise, they wished him to be graced with the palm of victory. 
After Rosader was thus called out of his memento by the Norman, 

1 musing. 



l6 ROSALYNDE 

he roughly clapped to him with so fierce an encounter, that 
they both fell to the ground, and with the violence of the fall 
were forced to breathe ; in which space the Norman called to 
mind by all tokens, that this was he whom Saladyne had ap- 
5 pointed hiim to kill; which conjecture made him stretch every 
limb, and try every sinew, that working his death he might re- 
cover the gold which so bountifully was promised him. On the 
contrary part, Rosader while he breathed was not idle, but still 
cast his eye upon Rosalynde, who to encourage him with a favor, 

TO lent him such an amorous look, as might have made the most 
coward desperate : which glance of Rosalynde so fired the pas- 
sionate desires of Rosader, that turning to the Norman he ran 
upon him and braved him with a strong encounter. The Norman 
received him as valiantly, that there was a sore combat, hard to 

1 5 judge on whose side fortune would be prodigal. At last Rosader, 
calling to mind the beauty of his new mistress, the fame of his 
father's honors, and the disgrace that should fall to his house by 
his misfortune, roused himself and threw the Norman against the 
ground, falling upon his chest with, so willing a weight, that the 

20 Norman yielded nature her due, and Rosader the victory. 

The death of this champion, as it highly contented the frank- 
lin, as a man satisfied with revenge, so it drew the king and all 
the peers into a great admiration,^ that so young years and so 
beautiful a personage should contain such martial excellence ; 

25 but when they knew him to be the youngest son of Sir John of 
Bordeaux, the king rose from his seat and embraced him, and 
the peers entreated him with all favorable courtesy, commend- 
ing both his valor and his virtues, wishing him to go forward in 
such haughty deeds, that he might attain to the glory of his 

30 father's honorable fortunes. 

As the king and lords graced him with embracing, so the 
ladies favored him with their looks, especially Rosalynde, whom 

1 wonder. 



ROSALYNDE 1/ 

the beauty and valor of Rosader had already touched : but she 
accounted love a toy, and fancy a momentary passion, that as it 
was taken in with a gaze, might be shaken off with a wink, and 
therefore feared not to dally in the flame ; and to make Rosader 
know she affected him, took from her neck a jewel, and sent it 5 
by a page to the young gentleman. The prize that Venus gave 
to Paris was not half so pleasing to the Troyan as this gem was 
to Rosader ; for if fortune had sworn to make him sole monarch 
of the world, he would rather have refused such dignity, than 
have lost the jewel sent him by Rosalynde. To return her with lo 
the like he was unfurnished, and yet that he might more than in 
his looks discover his affection, he stepped into a tent, and taking 
pen and paper writ this fancy : 

Two suns at once from one fair heaven there shined, 

Ten branches from two boughs, tipped all with roses, 1 5 

Pure locks more golden than is gold refined, 

Two pearled rows that nature's pride encloses ; 
Two mounts fair marble-white, down-soft and dainty, 

A snow-dyed orb, where love increased by pleasure 
Full woeful makes my heart, and body fainty : 20 

Her fair (my woe) exceeds all thought and measure. 
In lines confused my luckless harm appeareth, 
Whom sorrow clouds, whom pleasant smiling cleareth. 

This sonnet he sent to Rosalynde, which when she read she 
blushed, but with a sweet content in that she perceived love 25 
had allotted her so amorous a servant. 

Leaving her to her new entertained fancies, again to Rosader, 
who triumphing in the glory of this conquest, accompanied with 
a troop of young gentlemen that were desirous to be his familiars, 
went home to his brother Saladyne's, who was walking before 30 
the gates, to hear what success his brother Rosader should have, 
assuring himself of his death, and devising how with dissimuled 
sorrow to celebrate his funerals. As he was in his thought, he 
cast up his eye, and saw where Rosader returned with the 



1 8 ROSALYNDE 

garland on his head, as having won the prize, accompanied with 

. a crew of boon companions. Grieved at this, he stepped in and 
shut the gate. Rosader seeing this, and not looking for such 
unkind entertainment, blushed at the disgrace, and yet smother- 
5 ing his grief with a smile, he turned to the gentlemxcn, and de- 
sired them to hold his brother excused, for he did not this upon 
any malicious intent or niggardize, but being brought up in the 
country, he absented himself as not finding his nature fit for 
such youthful company. Thus he sought to shadow abuses 

lo proffered him by his brother, but in vain, for he could by no 
means be suffered to enter : whereupon he ran his foot against 
the door, and broke it open, drawing his sword, and entering 
boldly into the hall, where he found none, for all were fled, but 
one Adam Spencer, an Englishman, who had been an old and 

15 trusty servant to Sir John of Bordeaux. He for the love he bare 
to his deceased master, favored the part of Rosader, and gave 
him and his such entertainment as he could. Rosader gave him 
thanks, and looking about, seeing the hall empty, said : 

'^ Gentlemen, you are welcome ; frolic and be merry : you 

20 shall be sure to have wine enough, whatsoever your fare be. I 

tell you, cavaliers, my brother hath in his house five tun of wine, 

and as long as that lasteth, I beshrew him that spares his liquor." 

With that he burst open the buttery door, and with the help 

of Adam Spencer covered the tables, and set down whatsoever 

25 he could find in the house ; but what they wanted in meat, 
Rosader supplied with drink, yet had they royal cheer, and 
withal such hearty welcome as would have made the coarsest 
meats seem delicates.^ After they had feasted and frolicked it 
twice or thrice with an upsee freeze,^ they all took their leaves 

30 of Rosader and departed. As soon as they were gone, Rosader 
growing impatient of the abuse, drew his sword, and swore to 
be revenged on the discourteous Saladyne ; yet by the means 

1 dainties. 2 " a toast." — Greg, 



ROSALYNDE 19 

of Adam Spencer, who sought to continue friendship and amity 
betwixt the brethren, and through the flattering submission of 
Saladyne, they were once again reconciled, and put up all fore- 
passed injuries with a peaceable agreement, living together for a 
good space in such brotherly love, as did not only rejoice the 5 
servants, but made all the gentlemen and bordering neighbors 
glad of such friendly concord. Saladyne, hiding fire in the straw, 
and concealing a poisoned hate in a peaceable countenance, yet 
deferring the intent of his wrath till fitter oportunity, he showed 
himself a great favorer of his brother's virtuous endeavors : 10 
where leaving them in this happy league, let us return to 
Rosalynde. 

Rosalynde returning home from the triumph, after she waxed 
solitary, love presented her with the idea of Rosader's perfection, 
and taking her at discovert struck her so deep, as she felt her- 15 
self grow passing passionate. She began to call to mind the 
comeliness of his person, the honor of his parents, and the vir- 
tues that, excelling both, made him so gracious in the eyes of 
every one. Sucking in thus the honey of love by imprinting in 
her thoughts his rare qualities, she began to surfeit with the 20 
contemplation of his virtuous conditions ; but when she called 
to remembrance her present estate, and the hardness of her for- 
tunes, desire began to shrink, and fancy to vail bonnet, that be- 
tween a Chaos of confused thoughts she began to debate with 
herself in this manner : 25 

Rosalynde's Passion 

'^ Infortunate Rosalynde, whose misfortunes are more than 
thy years, and whose passions are greater than thy patience ! 
The blossoms of thy youth are mixed with the frosts of envy, 
and the hope of thy ensuing fruits perish in the bud. Thy father 
is by Torismond banished from the crown, and thou, the un- 30 
happy daughterj)f a king, detained captive, living as disquieted 



20 ROSALYNDE 

in thy thoughts as thy father discontented in his exile. Ah 
Rosalynde, what cares wait upon a crown ! what griefs are 
incident to dignity ! what sorrows haunt royal palaces ! The 
greatest seas have the sorest storms, the highest birth subject 
5 to the most bale, and of all trees the cedars soonest shake with 
the wind : small currents are ever calm, low valleys not scorched 
in any lightnings, nor base men tied to any baleful prejudice. 
Fortune flies, and if she touch poverty it is with her heel, rather 
disdaining their want with a frown, than envying their wealth 

10 with disparagement. O Rosalynde, hadst thou been born low, 
thou hadst not fallen so high, and yet being great of blood thine 
honor is more, if thou brookest misfortune with patience. Sup- 
pose I contrary fortune with content, yet fates unwilling to have 
me anyway happy, have forced love to set my thoughts on fire 

1 5 with fancy. Love, Rosalynde ? becometh it women in distress to 
think of love ? Tush, desire hath no respect of persons : Cupid 
is blind and shooteth at random, as soon hitting a rag as a 
robe, and piercing as soon the bosom of a captive as the breast 
of a libertine. Thou speakest it, poor Rosalynde, by experience ; 

2o for being every way distressed, surcharged with cares, and over- 
grown with sorrows, yet amidst the heap of all these mishaps, 
love hath lodged in thy heart the perfection of young Rosader, 
a man every way absolute as well for his inward life, as for his 
outward lineaments, able to content the eye with beauty, and 

25 the ear with the report of his virtue. But consider, Rosalynde, 
his fortunes, and thy present estate : thou art poor and without 
patrimony, and yet the daughter of a prince ; he a younger 
brother, and void of such possessions as either might maintain 
thy dignities or revenge thy father's injuries. And hast thou 

30 not learned this of other ladies, that lovers cannot live by looks, 
that women's ears are sooner content with a dram of give me 
than a pound of hear me^ that gold is sweeter than eloquence, 
that love is a fire and wealth is the fuel, that Venus' coffers should 



ROSALYNDE 21 

be ever full ? Then, Rosalynde, seeing Rosader is poor, think 
him less beautiful because he is in want, and account his virtues 
but qualities of course for that he is not endued with w^ealth. 
Doth not Horace tell thee what method is to be used in love ? 

Quaerenda pecunia primum, post nummos virtus. ^ 

Tush, Rosalynde, be not over rash : leap not before thou look : 
either love such a one as may with his lands purchase thy liberty, 
or else love not at all. Choose not a fair face with an empty 
purse, but say as most women use to say : 

Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere foras. lo 

Why, Rosalynde ! can such base thoughts harbor in such high 
beauties ? can the degree of a princess, the daughter of Geris- 
mond harbor such servile conceits, as to prize gold more than 
honor, or to measure a gentleman by his wealth, not by his 
virtues? No, Rosalynde, blush at thy base resolution, and say, 15 
if thou lovest, 'either Rosader or none i ' And why ? because 
Rosader is both beautiful and virtuous." Smiling to herself to 
think of her new-entertained passions, taking up her lute that 
lay by her, she warbled out this ditty : 

Rosalynde^ s Madrigal 

Love in my bosom like a bee 20 

Doth suck his sweet : 
Now with his wings he plays with me, 

Now with his feet. 
Within mine eyes he makes his nest, 

His bed amidst my tender breast ; 25 

My kisses are his daily feast, 
And yet he robs me of my rest. 

Ah, wanton, will ye } 

And if I sleep, then percheth he 

With pretty flight, 30 

And makes his pillow of my knee 

The livelong night. 



22 ROSALYNDE 

Strike I my lute, he tunes the string, 
He music plays if so I sing ; 
He lends me every lovely thing, 
Yet cruel he my heart doth sting. 
5 Whist, wanton, still ye ! 

Else I with roses every day 

Will whip you hence, 
And bind you, when you long to play. 

For your offence ; 
lo I '11 shut mine eyes to keep you in, 

I '11 make you fast it for your sin, 
I '11 count your power not worth a pin. 
Alas, what hereby shall I win. 

If he gainsay me? 

I ^ What if I beat the wanton boy 

With many a rod ? 
He will repay me with annoy. 

Because a God. 
Then sit thou safely on my knee, 
2o And let thy bower my bosom be ; 

Lurk in mine eyes, I like of thee. 
O Cupid, so thou pity me. 
Spare not but play thee. 

•Scarce had Rosalynde ended her madrigal, before Torismond 

25 came in with his daughter Alinda and many of the peers of 

France, who were enamored of her beauty ; which Torismond 

perceiving, fearing lest her perfection might be the beginning 

of his prejudice, and the hope of his fruit end in the beginning 

of her blossoms, he thought to banish her from the court : '' for," 

30 quoth he to himself, '' her face is so full of favor, that it pleads 

pity in the eye of every man ; her beauty is so heavenly and 

divine, that she will prove to me as Helen did to Priam ; some 

one of the peers will aim at her love, end the marriage, and 

then in his wife's right attempt the kingdom. To prevent there- 

3 5 fore /lad I wist in all these actions, she tarries not about the 

court, but shall (as an exile) either wander to her father, or else 



ROSALYNDE 23 

seek other fortunes." In this humor, with a stern countenance 
full of wrath, he breathed out this censure unto her before 
the peers, that charged her that that night she were not seen 
about the court : '^ for,'"' quoth he, ^^I have heard of thy aspiring 
speeches, and intended treasons." This doom was strange unto 5 
Rosalynde, and presently, covered with the shield of her inno- 
cence, she boldly brake out in reverent terms to have cleared 
herself; but Torismond would admit of no reason, nor durst 
his lords plead for Rosalynde, although her beauty had made 
some of them passionate, seeing the figure of wrath portrayed 10 
in his brow. Standing thus all mute, and Rosalynde amazed, 
Alinda, who loved her more than herself, with grief in her heart 
and tears in her eyes, falling down on her knees, began to en- 
treat her father thus : 

Alinda's Oration to Her Father in Defence 
OF Fair Rosalynde 

'* If, mighty Torismond, I offend in pleading for my friend, 15 
let the law of amity crave pardon for my boldness ; for where 
there is depth of affection, there friendship alloweth a privilege. 
Rosalynde and I have been fostered up from our infancies, and 
nursed under the harbor of our conversing together with such 
private familiarities, that custom had wrought a union of our 20 
nature, and the sympathy of our affections such a secret love, 
that we have two bodies and one soul. Then marvel not, great 
Torismond, if, seeing my friend distressed, I find myself per- 
plexed with a thousand sorrows ; for her virtuous and honorable 
thoughts, which are the glories that maketh women excellent, 25 
they be such as may challenge love, and rase out suspicion. 
Her obedience to your majesty I refer to the censure of your 
own eye, that since her father's exile hath smothered all griefs 
with patience, and in the absence of nature, hath honored you 



24 ROSALYNDE 

with all duty, as her own father by nouriture, not in word 
uttering any discontent, nor in thought, as far as conjecture may 
reach, hammering on revenge ; only in all her actions seeking 
to please you, and to win my favor. Her wisdom, silence, 
5 chastity, and other such rich qualities, I need not decipher; 
only it rests for me to conclude in one word, that she is inno- 
cent. If then, fortune, who triumphs in a variety of miseries, 
hath presented some envious person (as minister of her in- 
tended stratagem) to taint Rosalynde with any surmise of trea- 

lo son, let him be brought to her face, and confirm his accusation 
by witnesses ; which proved, let her die, and Alinda will execute 
the massacre. If none can avouch any confirmed relation of her 
intent, use justice, my lord, it is the glory of a king, and let her 
live in your wonted favor; for if you banish her, myself, as 

15 copartner of her hard fortunes, will participate in exile some 
part of her extremities.'' 

Torismond, at this speech of Alinda, covered his face with 
such a frown, as tyranny seemed to sit triumphant in his fore- 
head, and checked her up ^ with such taunts, as made the lords, 

20 that only were .hearers, to tremble. 

^^ Proud girl," quoth he, ^'hath my looks made thee so light 
of tongue, or my favors encouraged thee to be so forward, that 
thou darest presume to preach after thy father ? Hath not my 
years more experience than thy youth, and the winter of mine 

25 age deeper insight into civil policy, than the prime ^ of thy flour- 
ishing days ? The old lion avoids the toils, where the young one 
leaps into the net: the care of age is provident and foresees 
much : suspicion is a virtue, where a man holds his enemy in 
his bosom. Thou, fond girl, measurest all by present affection, 

30 and as thy heart loves, thy thoughts censure ^ ; but if thou 
knowest that in liking Rosalynde thou hatchest up a bird to 
peck out thine own eyes, thou wouldst entreat as much for her 

1 stopped. 2 spring. 3 decide. 



ROSALYNDE . 25 

absence as now thou delightest in her presence. But why do I 
allege policy to thee ? Sit you down, housewife, and fall to your 
needle : if idleness make you so wanton, or liberty so malapert, 
I can quickly tie you to a sharper task. And you, maid, this 
night be packing, either into Arden to your father, or whither 5 
best it shall content your humor, but in the court you shall 
not abide." 

This rigorous reply of Torismond nothing amazed Alinda, 
for still she prosecuted her plea in the defence of Rosalynde, 
wishing her father, if his censure might not be reversed, that he 10 
would appoint her partner of her exile ; which if he refused to 
do, either she would by some secret means steal out and follow 
her, or else end her days with some desperate kind of death. 
When Torismond heard his daughter so resolute, his heart was 
so hardened against her, that he set down a definite and per- 15 
emptory sentence, that they should both be banished, which 
presently was done, the tyrant rather choosing to hazard the 
loss of his only child than anyways to put in question the state 
of his kingdom ; so suspicious and fearful is the conscience of 
an usurper. Well, although his lords persuaded him to retain 20 
his own daughter, yet his resolution might not be reversed, but 
both of them must away from the court without either more 
company or delay. In he went with great melancholy, and left 
these two ladies alone. Rosalynde waxed ver^^ sad, and sate 
down and wept. Alinda she smiled, and sitting by her friend 25 
began thus to comfort her : 

Alinda's Comfort to Perplexed Rosalynde 

" Why, how now, Rosalynde, dismayed with a frown of con- 
trary fortune ? Have I not oft heard thee say, that high minds 
were discovered in fortune's contempt, and heroical scene in 
the depth of extremities ? Thou wert wont to tell others that 30 
complained of distress, that the sweetest salve for misery was 



26 • ROSALYNDE 

patience, and the only medicine for want that precious implaister 
of content. Being such a good physician to others, wilt thou 
not minister receipts to thyself? But perchance thou wilt say: 

Consulenti nunquam caput doluit. 

5 Why then, if the patients that are sick of this disease can find 
in themselves neither reason to persuade, nor art to cure, yet, 
Rosalynde, admit of the counsel of a friend, and apply the salves 
that may appease thy passions. If thou grievest that being the 
daughter of a prince, and envy thwarteth thee with such hard 

lo exigents,^ think that royalty is a fair mark, that crowns have 
crosses when mirth is in' cottages ; that the fairer the rose 
is, the sooner it is bitten with caterpillars ; the more orient ^ 
the pearl is, the more apt to take a blemish; and the greatest 
birth, as it hath most honor, so it hath much envy. If then 

1 5 fortune aimeth at the fairest, be patient Rosalynde, for first by 
thine exile thou goest to thy father : nature is higher prize than 
wealth, and the love of one's parents ought to be more precious 
than all dignities. Why then doth my Rosalynde grieve at the 
frown of Torismond, who by offering her a prejudice proffers 

20 her a greater pleasure ? and more, mad lass, to be melancholy, 
when thou hast with thee Alinda, a friend who will be a faithful 
copartner of all thy misfortunes, who hath left her father to 
follow thee, and chooseth rather to brook all extremities than to 
forsake thy presence. What, Rosalynde, 

25 Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris. 

Cheerly, woman : as we have been bed-fellows in royalty, we 
will be fellow-mates in poverty : I will ever be thy Alinda, and 
thou shalt ever rest to me Rosalynde ; so shall the world canon- 
ize our friendship, and speak of Rosalynde and Alinda, as they 
30 did of Pylades and Orestes. And if ever fortune smile, and we 

1 necessities. 2 precious ; because the most valued gems came from th^ Orient. 



ROSALYNDE 2/ 

return to our former honor, then folding ourselves in the sweet 
of our friendship, we shall merrily say, calling to mind our fore- 
passed miseries : 

Olim haec meminisse juvabit." 

At this Rosalynde began to comfort her, and after she had 5 
wept a few kind tears in the bosom of her Alinda, she gave her 
hearty thanks, and then they sat them down to consult how 
they should travel. Alinda grieved at nothing but that they 
might have no man in their company, saying it would be their 
greatest prejudice in that two women went wandering without lo 
either guide or attendant. 

^^ Tush," quoth Rosalynde, ''art thou a woman, and hast not 
a sudden shift to prevent a misfortune ? I, thou seest, am of a 
tall stature, and would very well become the person and apparel 
of a page ; thou shalt be my mistress, and I will play the man 15 
so properly, that, trust me, in what company soever . I come I 
will not be discovered. I will buy me a suit, and have my rapier 
very handsomely at my side, and if any knave offer wrong, your 
page will show him the point of his weapon." 

At this Alinda smiled, and upon this they agreed, and pres- 20 
ently gathered up all their jewels, which they trussed up ^ in a 
casket, and Rosalynde in all haste provided her of robes, and 
Alinda, from her royal weeds, put herself in more homelike 
attire. Thus fitted to the purpose, away go these two friends, 
having now changed their names, Alinda being called Aliena, 25 
and Rosalynde Ganymede. They travelled along the vineyards, 
and by many by-ways at last got to the forest side, where they 
travelled by the space of two or three days without seeing 
any creature, being often in danger of wild beasts, and pained 
with many passionate sorrows. Now the black ox^ began to 30 
tread on their feet, and Alinda thought of her wonted royalty ; 
but when she cast her eyes on her Rosalynde, she thought every 

1 packed. 2 ill-luck. 



28 ROSALYNDE 

danger a step to honor. Passing thus on along, about midday 
they came to a fountain, compassed with a grove ji cypress 
trees, so cunningly and curiously planted, as if some goddess had 
entreated nature in that place to make her an arbor. By this 
5 fountain sat Aliena and her Ganymede, and forth they pulled 
such victuals as they had, and fed as merrily as if they had been in 
Paris with all the king's delicates, Aliena only grieving that they 
could not so much as meet with a shepherd to discourse them 
the way to some place where they might make their abode. At 

10 last Ganymede casting up his eye espied where on a tree was en- 
graven certain verses ; which as soon as he espied, he cried out : 
''Be of good cheer, mistress, I spy the figures of men ; for 
here in these trees be engraven certain verses of shepherds, 
or some other swains that inhabit hereabout.'' 

15 With that Aliena start up joyful to hear these news, and 

looked, where they found carved in the bark of a pine tree this 

passion : 

Montanus^s Fassmi 

Hadst thou been born whereas perpetual cold 
Makes Tanais hard, and mountains silver old ; 

20 Had I complained unto a marble stone, 

Or to the floods bewrayed my bitter moan, 

I then could bear the burthen of my grief. 
But even the pride of countries at thy birth, 
Whilst heavens did smile, did new array the earth 

25 With flowers chief. 

Yet thou, the flower of beauty blessed born. 
Hast pretty looks, but all attired in scorn. 
Had I the power to weep sweet Mirrha's tears. 
Or by my plaints to pierce repining ears ; 

30 Hadst thou the heart to smile at my complaint, 

To scorn the woes that doth my heart attaint, 
I then could bear the burthen of my grief : 
But not my tears, but truth with thee prevails, 
And seeming sour my sorrows thee assails : 

35 Yet small relief; 

For if fhou wilt thou art of marble hard. 
And if thou please my suit shall soon be heard. 



ROSALYNDE 29 

'^ No doubt," quoth Aliena, '^ this poesy is the passion of 
some perplexed shepherd, that being enamored of some fair 
and beautiful shepherdess, suffered some sharp repulse, and 
therefore complained of the cruelty of his mistress." 

'' You may see," quoth Ganymede, '^ what mad cattle you 5 
women be, whose hearts sometimes are made of adamant that 
will touch with no impression, and sometime of wax that is fit 
for every form : they delight to be courted, and then they glory 
to seem coy, and when they are most desired then they freeze 
with disdain : and this fault is so common to the sex, that you 10 
see it painted out in the shepherd's passions, who found his 
mistress as fro ward as he was enamored." 

" And I pray you," quoth Aliena, '' if your robes were off, 
what mettle are you made of that you are so satirical against 
women ? Is it not a foul bird defiles the own nest ? Beware, 1 5 
Ganymede, that Rosader hear you not, if he do, perchance you 
will make him leap so far from love, that he will anger every 
vein in your heart." 

*^ Thus," quoth Ganymede, ^^ I keep decorum : I speak now 
as I am Aliena's: page, not as I am Gerismond's daughter ; for 20 
put me but into a petticoat, and I will stand in defiance to the 
uttermost, that women are courteous, constant, virtuous, and 
what not." 

"Stay there," quoth Aliena, '^ and no more words, for 
yonder be characters graven upon the bark of the tall beech 25 
tree." 

" Let us see," quoth Ganymede ; and with that they read a 
fancy written to this effect : 

First shall the heavens want starry light, 

The seas be robbed of their waves, 30 

The day want sun, and sun want bright, 

The night want shade, the dead men graves, 
The April flowers and leaf and tree, 
Before I false my faith to thee. 



30 ROSALYNDE 

First shall the tops of highest hills 

By humble plains be overpried, 
And poets scorn the Muses' quills, 
And fish forsake the water glide, 
5 And Iris loose her colored weed,i 

Before I fail thee at thy need. 

First direful hate shall turn to peace, 

And love relent in deep disdain. 
And death his fatal stroke shall cease, 
10 And envy pity every pain. 

And pleasure mourn and sorrow smile, 
Before I talk of any guile. 

First time shall stay his stayless race, 
And winter bless his brows with corn, 
15 And snow bemoisten July's face, 

And winter spring, and summer mourn, 
Before my pen, by help of fame, 
Cease to recite thy sacred name. ,^ 

^ MONTANUS 

^^ No doubt," quoth Ganymede, ^^ this protestation grew from 
20 one full of passions." 

'^ I am of that mind too," quoth Aliena, '' but see, I pray, when 
poor women seek to keep themselves chaste, how men woo them 
with many feigned promises ; alluring with sweet words as the 
Sirens, and after proving as trothless as Aeneas. Thus promised 
25 Demophoon to his Phyllis, but who at last grew more false ? " 
'' The reason was," quoth Ganymede, '' that they were 
women's sons, and took that fault of their mother, for if man 
had grown from man, as Adam did from the earth, men had 
never been troubled with inconstancy." . 
30 '^ Leave off," quoth Ahena, '' to taunt thus bitterly, or else I '11 
pull off your page's apparel, and whip you, as Veniis doth her 
wantons, with nettles." 

'^ So you will," quoth Ganymede, '^ persuade me to flattery, 

and that needs not : but come, seeing we have found here by this 

35 fount the tract of shepherds by their madrigals and roundelays, 

1 garment. In what modern expression is this meaning of the word retained ? 



ROSALYNDE 3 1 

let us forward ; for either we shall find some folds, sheepcotes, 
or else some cottages wherein for a day or two to rest." 

'' Content," quoth Aliena, and with that they rose up, and 
marched forward till towards the even, and then coming into 
a fair valley, compassed with mountains, whereon grew many 5 
pleasant shrubs, they might descry where two flocks of sheep 
did feed. Then, looking about, they might perceive where an 
old shepherd sat, and with him a young swaine, under a covert 
most pleasantly situated. The ground where they sat was 
diapered with Flora's riches, as if she meant to wrap Tellus in lo 
the glory of her vestments : round about in the form of an am- 
phitheatre were most curiously planted pine trees, interseamed 
with limons and citrons, which with the thickness of their boughs 
so shadowed the place, that Phoebus could not pry into the 
secret of that arbor; so united were the tops with so thick a 15 
closure, that Venus might there in her jollity have dallied unseen 
with her dearest paramour. Fast by, to make the place more 
gorgeous, was there a fount so crystalline and clear, that it seemed 
Diana with her Dryades and Hamadryades had that spring, as 
the secret of all their bathings. In this glorious arbor sat these 20 
two shepherds, seeing their sheep feed, playing on their pipes 
many pleasant tunes, and from music and melody falling into 
much amorous chat. Drawing more nigh we might descry the 
countenance of the one to be full of sorrow, his face to be the 
very portraiture of discontent, and his eyes full of woes, that liv- 25 
ing he seemed to die : we, to hear what these were, stole privily 
behind the thicket, where we overheard this discourse : 

A Pleasant Eclogue between Montanus aiid Cory don 

CORYDON 

Say, shepherd's boy, what makes thee greet ^ so sore ? 
Why leaves thy pipe his pleasure and delight ? 
Young are thy years, thy cheeks with roses dight : 30 

Then sing for joy, sweet swain, and sigh no more. 
i weep. 



32 ROSALYNDE 

This milk-white poppy, and this cHmbing pine 
Both promise shade ; then sit thee down and sing, 
And make these woods with pleasant notes to ring, 
Till Phoebus deign all westward to decline. 

MONTANUS 

5 Ah, Corydon, unmeet is melody 

To him whom proud contempt hath overborne : 
Slain are my joys by Phoebe's bitter scorn ; 
Far hence my weal, and near my jeopardy. 

Love's burning brand is couched in my breast, 
ID Making a Phoenix of my faintful heart : 

And though his fury do enforce my smart, 
Ay blithe am I to honor his behest. 

Prepared to woes, since so my Phoebe wills, 
My looks dismayed, since Phoebe will disdain ; 
15 I banish bliss and welcome home my pain : 

So stream my tears as showers from Alpine hills. 

In error's mask I blindfold judgment's eye, 
I fetter reason in the snares of lust, 
I seem secure, yet know not how to trust ; 
20 I live by that which makes me living die. 

Devoid of rest, companion of distress. 
Plague to myself, consumed by my thought. 
How may my voice or pipe in tune be brought. 
Since I am reft of solace and delight ? 

Corydon 

25 Ah, lorrel lad, what makes thee hery 1 love ? 

A sugared harm, a poison full of pleasure, 
A painted shrine full filled with rotten treasure ; 
A heaven in show, a hell to them that prove.^ 

A gain in seeming, shadowed still with want, 
30 A broken staff which folly doth uphold, 

A flower that fades with every frosty cold. 
An orient rose sprung from a withered plant. 

1 praise. 2 try, test. 



ROSALYNDE 33 

A minute's joy to gain a world of grief, 
A subtle net to snare the idle mind, 
A seeing scorpion, yet in seeming blind, 
A poor rejoice, a plague without relief. 

Forthy,! Montanus, follow mine arede,^ 5 

(Whom age hath taught the trains^ that fancy useth) 
Leave foolish love, for beauty wit abuseth. 
And drowns, by folly, virtue's springing seed. 

Montanus 

So blames the child the flame because it burns, 

And bird the snare because it doth entrap, 10 

And fools true love because of sorry hap. 

And sailors curse the ship that overturns. 

But would the child forbear to play with flame. 

And birds beware to trust the fowler's gin. 

And fools foresee before they fall and sin, i^ 

And masters guide their ships in better frame ; 

The child would praise the fire because it warms, 

And birds rejoice to see the fowler fail. 

And fools prevent before their plagues prevail, 

And sailors bless the barque that saves from harms, 20 

Ah, Corydon, though many be thy years, 
And crooked elde* hath some experience left. 
Yet is thy mind of judgment quite bereft, 
In view of love, whose power in me appears. 

The ploughman little wots to turn the pen, 25 

Or bookman skills to guide the ploughman's cart; 

Nor can the cobbler count the terms of art. 

Nor base men judge the thoughts of mighty men. 

Nor withered age, unmeet for beauty's guide, 
■ Uncapable of love's impression, ^o 

Discourse of that whose choice possession 
May never to so base a man be tied. 

1 hence. 2 advice. 3 stratagems. '^ old age. 



34 ROSALYNDE 

But I, whom nature makes of tender mould, 
And youth most pHant yields to fancy's fire, 
Do build my haven and heaven on sweet desire, 
On sweet desire, more dear to me than gold. 

5 Think I of love, oh, how my lines aspire ! 

How haste the Muses to embrace my brows. 
And hem my temples in with laurel boughs. 
And fill my brains with chaste and holy fire ! 

Then leave my lines their homely equipage, 
10 Mounted beyond the circle of the sun : 

Amazed I read the stile when I have done, 
And hery ^ love that sent that heavenly rage. 

Of Phoebe then, of Phoebe then I sing. 
Drawing the purity of all the spheres, 
15 The pride of earth, or what in heaven appears, 

Her honored face and fame to light to bring. 

In fluent numbers, and in pleasant veins, 
I rob both sea and earth of all their state. 
To praise her parts : I charm both time and fate, 
20 To bless the nymph that yields me lovesick pains. 

My sheep are turned to thoughts, whom froward will 
Guides in the restless labyrinth of love ; 
Fear lends them pasture wheresoe'er they move, 
And by their death their life reneweth still. 

25 My sheephook is my pen, mine oaten reed 

My paper, where my many woes are written. 
Thus silly swain, with love and fancy bitten, 
I trace the plains ^ of pain in woeful weed. 

Yet are my cares, my broken sleeps, my tears, 
30 My dreams, my doubts, for Phoebe sweet to me : 

Who waiteth heaven in sorrow's vale must be, 
And glory shines where danger most appears. 

Then, Corydon, although I blithe me not. 
Blame me not, man, since sorrow is my sweet : 
35 So willeth love, and Phoebe thinks it meet, 

And kind Montanus liketh well his lot. 

1 praise. " 2 complaints. 



ROSALYNDE 35 



CORYDON 

O stayless youth, by error so misguided, 
Where will proscribeth laws to perfect wits, 
Where reason mourns, and blame in triumph sits, 
And folly poisoneth all that time provided I 

With wilful blindness bleared, prepared to shame, 5 

Prone to neglect Occasion when she smiles : 
Alas, that love, by fond and froward guiles, 
Should make thee tract ^ the path to endless blame ! 

Ah, my Montanus, cursed is the charm, 

That hath bewitched so thy youthful eyes. 10 

Leave off in time to like these vanities. 

Be forward to thy good, and fly thy harm. 

As many bees as Hybla daily shields. 

As many fry as fleet on ocean's face. 

As many herds as on the earth do trace, 15 

As many flowers as deck the fragrant fields, 

As many stars as glorious heaven contains, 

As many storms as wayward winter weeps. 

As many plagues as hell enclosed keeps. 

So many griefs in love, so many pains. 20 

Suspicions, thoughts, desires, opinions, prayers, 
Mislikes, misdeeds, fond joys, and feigned peace, 
Illusions, dreams, great pains, and small increase, 
Vows, hopes, acceptance, scorns, and deep despairs. 

Truce, war, and woe do wait at beauty's gate ; 25 

Time lost, laments, reports, and privy grudge. 

And last, fierce love is but a partial judge, 

Who yields for service shame, for friendship hate. 

Montanus 

All adder-like I stop mine ears, fond swain, 

So charm no more, for 1 will never change. 30 

Call home thy flocks in time that straggling range, 

For lo, the sun declineth hence amain. 

1 trace, walk. 



36 ROSALYNDE 

Terentius 

In amore haec omnia insunt vitia : induciae,.inimicitiae, bellum, pax 
rursum : incerta haec si tu postules ratione certa fieri, nihilo plus agas, 
quam si des operam, ut cum ratione insanias. 

The shepherds having thus ended their eclogue, Aliena 
5 stepped with Ganymede from behind the thicket ; at whose 
sudden sight the shepherds arose, and Aliena saluted them thus : 
'^ Shepherds, all hail, for such we deem you by your flocks, 
and lovers, good luck, for such you seem by your passions, our 
eyes being witness of the one, and our ears of the other. Al- 
io though not by love, yet by fortune, I am a distressed gentle- 
woman, as sorrowful as you are passionate, and as full of woes 
as you of perplexed thoughts. Wandering this way in a forest 
unknown, only I and my page, wearied with travel, would fain 
have some place of rest. May you appoint us any place of 
15 quiet harbor, be it never so mean, I shall be thankful to you, 
contented in myself, and grateful to whosoever shall be mine 
host." 

Corydon, hearing the gentlewoman speak so courteously, re- 
turned her mildly and reverently this answer : 
20 ^^ Fair mistress, we return you as hearty a welcome as you 
gave us a courteous salute. A shepherd I am, and this a lover, 
as watchful to please his wench as to feed his sheep : full of 
fancies, and therefore, say I, full of follies. Exhort him I may, 
but persuade him I cannot ; for love admits neither of counsel 
25 nor reason. But leaving him to his passions, if you be distressed, 
I am sorrowful such a fair creature is crossed with calamity ; 
pray for you I may, but relieve you I cannot. Marry, if you 
want lodging, if you vouch to shroud yourselves in a shepherd's 
cottage, my house for this night shall be your harbor." 
30 Aliena thanked Corydon greatly, and presently sate her down 
and Ganymede by her. Corydon looking earnestly upon her, and 
with a curious survey viewing all her perfections, applauded (in 



ROSALYNDE 37 

his thought) her excellence, and pitying her distress was desirous 
to hear the cause of her misfortunes, began to question her thus : 

'' If I should not, fair damosel, occasion offence, or renew 
your griefs by rubbing the scar, I would fain crave so much 
favor as to know the cause of your misfortunes, and why, and 5 
whither you wander with your page in so dangerous a forest ? " 

Aliena, that was as courteous as she was fair, made this reply : 

" Shepherd, a friendly demand ought never to be offensive, 
and questions of courtesy carry privileged pardons in their fore- 
heads. Know, therefore, to discover my fortunes were to renew 10 
my sorrows, and I should, by discoursing my mishaps, but rake 
fire out of the cinders. Therefore let this suffice, gentle shep- 
herd : my distress is as great as my travel is dangerous, and I 
wander in this forest to light on some cottage where I and my 
page may dwell : for I mean to buy some farm, and a flock of 15 
sheep, and so become a shepherdess, meaning to live low, and 
content me with a country life ; for I have heard the swains say, 
that they drunk without suspicion, and slept without care." 

" Marry, mistress," quoth Corydon, '^ if you mean so, you 
came in good time, for my landslord intends to sell both the 20 
farm I till, and the flock I keep, and cheap you may have them 
for ready money : and for a shepherd's life, O mistress, did you 
but live awhile in their content, you would say the court were 
rather a place of sorrow than of solace. Here, mistress, shall 
not fortune thwart you, but in mean misfortunes, as the loss of 25 
a few sheep, which, as it breeds no beggary, so it can be no ex- 
treme prejudice : the next year may mend all with a fresh in- 
crease. Envy stirs not us, we covet not to climb, our desires 
mount not above our degrees, nor our thoughts above our for- 
tunes. Care cannot harbor in our cottages, nor do our homely 30 
couches know broken slumbers : as we exceed not in diet, so we 
have enough to satisfy: and, mistress, I have so much Latin, 
Satis est quod siifficit.'''' 



38 ROSALYNDE 

^' By my troth, shepherd," quoth Aliena, '^ thou makest me in 
love with your country life, and therefore send for thy landslord, 
and I will buy thy farm and thy flocks, and thou shalt still under 
me be overseer of them both : only for pleasure sake I and my 
5 page will serve you, lead the flocks to the field, and fold them. 
Thus will I live quiet, unknown, and contented." 

This news so gladded the heart of Corydon, that he should 
not be put out of his farm, that putting off his shepherd's bonnet, 
he did her all the reverence that he might. But all this while 
lo sate Montanus in a muse, thinking of the cruelty of his Phoebe, 
whom he wooed long, but was in no hope to win. Ganymede, 
who still had the remembrance of Rosader in his thoughts, took 
delight to see the poor shepherd passionate, laughing at Love, 
that in all his actions was so imperious. At last, when she 
15 had noted his tears that stole down his cheeks, and his sighs 
that broke from the centre of his heart, pitying his lament, 
she demanded of Corydon why the young shepherd looked so 
sorrowful. 

'^ O sir," quoth he, ^' the boy is in love." 
20 '' Why," quoth Ganymede, '' can shepherds love ? " 

'^ Aye," quoth Montanus, " and overlove, else shouldst not 
thou see me so pensive. Love, I tell thee, is as precious in a 
shepherd's eye, as in the looks of a king, and we country swains 
entertain fancy with as great delight as the proudest courtier 
25 doth affection. Opportunity, that is the sweetest friend to Venus, 
harboreth in our cottages, and loyalty, the chiefest fealty that 
Cupid requires, is found more among shepherds than higher de- 
grees. Then, ask not if such silly swains can love." 

^^ What is the cause then," quoth Ganymede, '^ that love being 
30 so sweet to thee, thou lookest so sorrowful ? " 

" Because," quoth Montanus, '^ the party beloved is fro ward, 
and having courtesy in her looks, holdeth disdain in her tongue's 
end." 



ROSALYNDE 39 

^' What hath she, then/' quoth Aliena, '' in her heart ? " 

'' Desire, I hope madam,'' quoth he, '' or else, my hope lost, 
despair in love were death." 

As thus they . chatted, the sun being ready to set, and they 
not having folded their sheep, Corydon requested she would sit 5 
there with her page, till Montanus and he lodged their sheep for 
that night. 

'' You shall go," quoth Aliena, '' but first I will entreat Mon- 
tanus to sing some amorous sonnet, that he made when he hath 
been deeply passionate." 10 

^^ That I will," quoth Montanus, and with that he began thus : 

Montanus^ s Sonnet 

Phoebe sate, 
Sweet she sate, 

Sweet sate Phoebe when I saw her ; 
White her brow, 
Coy her eye : 

Brow and eye how much you please me ! 
Words I spent. 
Sighs I sent : 

Sighs and words could never draw her. 20 

my love, 
Thou art lost, 

Since no sight could ever ease thee. 

Phoebe sat 

By a fount ; 25 

Sitting by a fount I spied her : 
Sweet her touch, - 
Rare her voice : 

Touch and voice what may distain you .'* 
As she sung' 30 

1 did sigh, 

And by sighs whilst that I tried her, 
O mine eyes ! 
You did lose 

Her first sight whose want did pain you. 35 



15 



40 ROSALYNDE 

Phoebe's flocks, 
White as wool : 

Yet were Phoebe's locks more whiter. 
Phoebe's eyes 
5 Dovelike mild : 

Dovelike eyes, both mild and cruel. 
Montan swears. 
In your lamps 

He will die for to delight her. 
10 Phoebe yield. 

Or I die : 

Shall true hearts be fancy's fuel ? i 

Montanus had no sooner ended his sonnet, but Corydon 
v^ith a low courtesy rose up and went with his fellow, and shut 

15 their sheep in the folds; and after returning to Aliena and 
Ganymede, conducted them home weary to his poor cottage. 
By the way there was much good chat with Montanus about his 
loves, he resolving Aliena that Phoebe was the fairest shep- 
herdess in all France, and that in his eye her beauty was equal 

20 with the nymphs. 

'' But," quoth he, '' as of all stones the diamond is most 
clearest, and yet most hard for the lapidary to cut : as of all 
flowers the rose is the fairest, and yet guarded with the sharpest 
prickles : so of all our country lasses Phoebe is the brightest, but 

25 the most coy of all to stoop unto desire. But let her take heed," 
quoth he, "I have heard of Narcissus, who for his high disdain 
against Love, perished in the folly of his own love." 

With this they were at Corydon 's cottage, where Montanus 
parted from them, and they went in to rest. Aliena and Gany- 

30 mede glad of so contented a shelter, made merry with the poor 
swain ; and though they had but country fare and coarse lodg- 
ing, yet their welcome was so great, and their cares so little, that 
they counted their diet delicate, and slept as soundly as if they 

1 This poem was parodied by one of Lodge's contemporaries under the 
title " Ronsard's Description of his Mistress " in allusion to Lodge's habit of 
imitating foreign poets. 



ROSALYNDE 4 1 

had been in the court of Torismond. The next morn they lay 
long in bed, as wearied with the toil of unaccustomed travel ; 
but as soon as they got up, Aliena resolved there to set up her 
rest,^ and by the help of Cory don swept ^ a bargain with his 
landslord, and so became mistress of the farm and the flock, 5 
herself putting on the attire of a shepherdess, and Ganymede of 
a young swain : every day leading forth her flocks, with such 
delight, that she held her exile happy, and thought no content 
to the bliss of a country cottage. Leaving her thus famous 
amongst the shepherds of Arden, again to Saladyne. 10 

Wlien Saladyne had a long while concealed a secret resolution 
of revenge, and could no longer hide fire in the flax, nor oil in 
the flame, for envy is like lightning, that will appear in the 
darkest fog, it chanced on a morning very early he called up 
certain of his servants, and went with them to the chamber of 15 
Rosader, which being open, he entered with his crew, and sur- 
prised his brother being asleep, and bound him in fetters, and 
in the midst of his hall chained him to a post. Rosader, amazed 
at this strange chance, began to reason with his brother about 
the cause of this sudden extremity, wherein he had wronged, 20 
and what fault he had committed worthy so sharp a penance. 
Saladyne answered him only with a look of disdain, and went 
his way, leaving poor Rosader in a deep perplexity ; who, thus 
abused, fell into sundry passions, but no means of relief could 
be had : whereupon for anger he grew into a discontented melan- 25 
choly. In which humor he continued two or three days without 
meat, insomuch that seeing his brother would give him no food, he 
fell into despair of his life. Which Adam Spencer, the old servant 
of Sir John of Bordeaux, seeing, touched with the duty and love 
he ought ^ to his old master, felt a remorse in his conscience of 30 
his son's mishap ; and therefore, although Saladyne had given a 
general charge to his servants that none of them upon pain of 

1 choose her dwelHng. "-2 concluded. 3 owed. 



42 . ROSALYNDE 

death should give either meat or drink to Rosader, yet Adam 
Spencer in the night rose secretly, and brought him such victuals 
as he could provide, and unlocked him, and set him at liberty. 
After Rosader had v^ell feasted himself, and felt he was loose, 
5 straight his thoughts aimed at revenge, and now, all being 
asleep, he would have quit Saladyne with the method of his own 
mischief. But Adam Spencer did persuade him to the contrary 
with these reasons : 

'^ Sir," quoth he, ^^ be content, for this night go again into 

lo your old fetters, so shall you try the faith of friends, and save 
the life of an old servant. To-morrow hath your brother invited 
all your kindred and allies to a solemn breakfast, only to see you, 
telling them all that you are mad, and fain to be tied to a post. 
As soon as they come, complain to them of the abuse proffered 

15 you by Saladyne. If they redress you, why so : but if they pass 
over your plaints sicco pede^ and hold with the violence of your 
brother before your innocence, then thus : I will leave you un- 
locked that you may break out at your pleasure, and at the end 
of the hall shall you see stand a couple of good poleaxes, one 

20 for you and another for me. When I give you a wink, shake off 

your chains, and let us play the men, and make havoc amongst 

them, drive them out of the house and maintain possession by 

force of arms, till the king hath made a redress of your abuses." 

These words of Adam Spencer so persuaded Rosader, that 

25 he went to the place of his punishment, and stood there while ^ 
the next morning. About the time appointed, came all the guests 
bidden by Saladyne, whom he entreated with courteous and 
curious entertainment, as they all perceived their welcome to be 
great. The tables in the hall, where Rosader was tied, were 

30 covered, and Saladyne bringing in his guests together, showed 
them where his brother was bound, and was enchained as a 

. man lunatic. Rosader made reply, and with some invectives 

1 with dry foot = carelessly. 2 until. 



ROSALYNDE 43 

made complaints of the wrongs proffered him by Saladyne, de- 
siring they would in pity seek some means for his relief. But in 
vain, they had stopped their ears with Ulysses, that were his 
words never so forceable, he breathed only his passions into the 
wind. They, careless, sat down with Saladyne to dinner, being 5 
very frolic and pleasant, washing their heads well with wine. 
At last, when the fume of the grape had entered pell-mell into 
their brains, they began in satirical speeches to rail against 
Rosader : which Adam Spencer no longer brooking, gave the 
sign, and Rosader shaking off his chains got a poleaxe in his 10 
hand, and flew amongst them with such violence and fury, that 
he hurt many, slew some, and drave his brother and the rest 
quite out of the house. Seeing the coast clear, he shut the doors, 
and being sore anhungered, and seeing such good victuals, he 
sat him down with Adam Spencer, and such good fellows as he 15 
knew were honest men, and there feasted themselves with such 
provision as Saladyne had prepared for his friends. After they 
had taken their repast, Rosader rampired up^ the house, lest 
upon a sudden his brother should raise some crew of his tenants, 
and surprise them unawares. But Saladyne took a contrary 20 
course, and went to the sheriff of the shire and made complaint 
of Rosader, who giving credit to Saladyne, in a determined reso- 
lution to revenge the gentleman's wrongs, took with him five- 
and-twenty tall ^ men, and made a vow, either to break into the 
house and take Rosader, or else to coop him in till he made him 25 
yield by famine. In this determination, gathering a crew together, 
he went forward to set Saladyne in his former estate. News of 
this was brought unto Rosader, who smiling at the cowardice of 
his brother, brooked all the injuries of fortune with patience, 
expecting the coming of the sheriff. As he walked upon the 30 
battlements of the house, he descried where Saladyne and he 
drew near, with a troop of lusty gallants. At this he smiled, and 

1 barricaded. 2 brave. 



44 ROSALYNDE 

called Adam Spencer, and showed him the envious treachery 
of his brother, and the folly of the sheriff to be so credulous. 
'^ Now, Adam," quoth he, *^ what shall I do ? It rests for me 
either to yield up the house to my brother and seek a reconcile- 
5 ment, or else issue out, and break through the company with 
courage, for cooped in like a coward I will not be. If I submit 
(ah Adam) I dishonor myself, and that is worse than death, for 
by such open disgraces, the fame of men grows odious. If I 
issue out amongst them, fortune may favor me, and I may 

10 escape with life. But suppose the worst ; if I be slain, then 
my death shall be honorable to me, and so inequal a revenge 
infamous to Saladyne." 

'^ Why then, master, forward and fear not ! Out amongst 
them ; they be but faint-hearted losels,^ and for Adam Spencer, 

15 if he die not at your foot, say he is a dastard." 

These words cheered up so the heart of young Rosader, that 
he thought himself sufficient for them all, and therefore prepared 
weapons for him and Adam Spencer, and were ready to enter- 
tain the sheriff ; for no sooner came Saladyne and he to the 

20 gates, but Rosader, unlooked for, leaped out and assailed them, 
wounded many of them, and caused the rest to give back, so 
that Adam and he broke through the prease ^ in despite of them 
all, and took their way towards the forest of Arden. This repulse 
so set the sheriff's heart on fire to revenge, that he straight 

25 raised all the country, and made hue and cry after them. But 
Rosader and Adam, knowing full well the secret ways that led 
through the vineyards, stole av/ay privily through the province 
of Bordeaux, and escaped safe to the forest of Arden. Being 
come thither, they were glad they had so good a harbor: but 

30 fortune, who is like the chameleon, variable with every object, 
and constant in nothing but inconstancy, thought to make them 
mirrors of her mutability, and therefore still crossed them thus 

1 lazy, worthless fellows. 2 crowd. 



ROSALYNDE 45 

contrarily. Thinking still to pass on by the by-ways to get to 
Lyons, they chanced on a path that led into the thick of the 
forest, where they wandered five or six days without meat, that 
they were almost famished finding neither shepherd nor cottage 
to relieve them ; and hunger growing on so extreme, Adam 5 
Spencer, being old, began first to faint, and sitting him down 
on a hill, and looking about him, espied where Rosader lay as 
feeble and as ill perplexed : which sight made him shed tears, 
and to fall into these bitter terms : 

Adam Spencer's Speech 

'^ Oh, how the life of man may well be compared to the state 10 
of the ocean seas, that for every calm hath a thousand storms, 
resembling the rose tree, that for a few fair flowers hath a multi- 
tude of sharp prickles ! All our pleasures end in pain, and our 
highest delights are crossed with deepest discontents. The joys 
of man, as they are few, so are they momentary, scarce ripe be- 15 
fore they are rotten, and withering in the blossom, either parched 
with the heat of envy or fortune. Fortune, O inconstant friend, 
that in all thy deeds art froward and fickle, delighting, in the 
poverty of the lowest and the overthrow of the highest, to de- 
cipher thy inconstancy. Thou standest upon a globe, and thy 20 
wings are plumed with Time's feathers, that thou mayest ever 
be restless : thou art double-faced like Janus, carrying frowns 
in the one to threaten, and smiles in the other to betray : thou 
profferest an eel, and performest a scorpion, and where thy 
greatest favors be, there is the fear of the extremest misfortunes, 25 
so variable are all thy actions. But why, Adam, dost thou ex- 
claim against Fortune ? She laughs at the plaints of the dis- 
tressed, and there is nothing more pleasing unto her, than to 
hear fools boast in her fading allurements, or sorrowful men to 
discover the sour of their passions. Glut her not, Adam, then 30 
with content, but thwart her with brooking all mishaps with 



46 ROSALYNDE 

patience. For there is no greater check to the pride of Fortune, 
than with a resolute courage to pass over her crosses without 
care. Thou art old, Adam, and thy hairs wax white : the palm 
' tree is already full of blooms, and in the furrows of thy face 
5 appears the calendars of death. Wert thou blessed by Fortune 
thy years could not be many, nor the date of thy life long : then 
sith nature must have her due, what is it for thee to resign her 
debt a little before the day. Ah, it is not this which grieveth me, 
nor do I care what mishaps Fortune can wage against me, but 

lo the sight of Rosader that galleth unto the quick. When I re- 
member the worships of his house, the honor of his fathers, and 
the virtues of himself, then do I say, that fortune and the fates 
are most injurious, to censure so hard extremes, against a youth 
of so great hope. O Rosader, thou art in the flower of thine age, 

15 and in the pride of thy years, buxom and full of May. Nature 
hath prodigally enriched thee with her favors, and virtue made 
thee the mirror of her excellence ; and now, through the decree 
of the unjust stars, to have ail these good parts nipped in the 
blade, and blemished by the inconstancy of fortune ! Ah, Rosader, 

20 could I help thee, my grief were the less, and happy should my 
death be, if it might be the beginning of thy relief : but seeing 
we perish both in one extreme, it is a double sorrow. What shall 
I do ? prevent the sight of his further misfortune with a present 
dispatch of mine own life ? Ah, despair is a merciless sin ! '' 

25 As he was ready to go forward in his passion, he looked 
earnestly on Rosader, and seeing him change color, he rise up 
and went to him, and holding his temples, said : 

" What cheer, master ? though all fail, let not the heart faint : 
the courage of a man is showed in the resolution of his death." 

30 At these words Rosader lifted up his eye, and looking on 
Adam Spencer, began to weep. 

'' Ah, Adam," quoth he, " I sorrow not to die, but I grieve 
at the manner of my death. Might I with my lance encounter 



ROSALYNDE 47 

the enemy, and so die in the field, it were honor and content : 
might I, Adam, combate with some wild beast and perish as his 
prey, I were satisfied ; but to die with hunger, O Adam, it is the 
extremest of all extremes ! " 

" Master,'^ quoth he, '' you see we are both in one predica- 5 
ment, and long I cannot live without meat ; seeing therefore 
we can find no food, let the death of the one preserve the life 
of the other. I am old, and overworn with age, you are young, 
and are the hope of many honors : let me then die, I will pres- 
ently cut my veins, and, master, with the warm blood relieve your 10 
fainting spirits : suck on that till I end, and you be comforted," 

With that Adam Spencer was ready to pull out his knife, when 
Rosader full of courage (though very faint) rose up, and wished 
Adam. Spencer to sit there till his return ; ^^ for my mind gives 
me," quoth he, '' I shall bring thee meat." With that, like a mad- 15 
man, he rose up, and ranged up and down the woods, seeking 
to encounter some wild beast with his rapier, that either he might 
carry his friend Adam food, or else pledge his life in pawn for 
his loyalty. 

It chanced that day, that Gerismond, the lawful king of France 20 
banished by Torismond, who with a lusty crew of outlaws lived 
in that forest, that day in honor of his birth made a feast to all 
his bold yeomen, and frolicked it with store of wine and venison, 
sitting all at a long table under the shadow of limon trees. To 
that place by chance fortune conducted, Rosader, who seeing 25 
such a crew of brave men, having store of that for want of which 
he and Adam perished, he stepped boldly to the board's end, 
and saluted the company thus : 

'^ Whatsoever thou be that art master of these lusty squires, 
I salute thee as graciously as a man in extreme distress may : 30 
know that I and a fellow-friend of mine are here famished in 
the forest for want of food : perish we must, unless relieved by 
thy favors. Therefore, if thou be a gentleman, give meat to 



48 ROSALYNDE 

men, and to such men as are every way worthy of life. Let the 
proudest squire that sits at thy table rise and encounter with me 
in any honorable point of activity whatsoever, and if he and thou 
prove me not a man, send me away comfortless. If thou refuse 
5 this, as a niggard of thy cates, I will have amongst you with 
my sword ; for rather will I die valiantly, than perish with so 
cowardly an extreme." 

Gerismond, looking him earnestly in the face, and seeing so 
proper a gentleman in so bitter a passion, was moved with so 

10 great pity, that rising from the table, he took him by the hand 
and bad him welcome, willing him to sit down in his place, and 
in his room not only to eat his fill, but be lord of the feast. 

'^ Gramercy, sir," quoth Rosader, " but I have a feeble friend 
that lies hereby famished almost for food, aged and therefore less 

1 5 able to abide the extremity of hunger than myself, and dishonor 
it were for me to taste one crumb, before I made him partner 
of my fortunes : therefore I will run and fetch him, and then I 
will gratefully accept of your proffer." 

Away hies Rosader to Adam Spencer, and tells him the news, 

2o who was glad of so happy fortune, but so feeble he was that he 
could not go ; whereupon Rosader got him up on his back, and 
brought him to the place. Which when Gerismond and his men 
saw, they greatly applauded their league of friendship ; and 
Rosader, having Gerismond's place assigned him, would not sit 

25 there himself, but set down Adam Spencer. Well, to be short, 
those hungry squires fell to their victuals, and feasted themselves 
with good delicates, and great store of wine. As soon as they 
had taken their repast, Gerismond, desirous to hear what hard 
fortune drave them into those bitter extremes, requested Ros- 

30 ader to discourse, if it were not any way prejudicial unto him, 
the cause of his travel. Rosader, desirous any way to satisfy 
the courtesy of his favorable host, first beginning his exordium 
with a volley of sighs, and a few lukewarm tears, prosecuted his 



ROSALYNDE 49 

discourse, and told him from point to point all his fortunes: 
how he was the youngest son of Sir John of Bordeaux, his 
name Rosader, how his brother sundry times had wronged 
him, and lastly how, for beating the sheriff and hurting his 
men, he fled. 5 

'' And this old man," quoth he, ^^ whom I so much love and 
honor, is surnamed Adam Spencer, an old servant of my father's, 
and one, that for his love, never failed me in all my misfortunes." 

When Gerismond heard this, he fell on the neck of Rosader, 
and next discoursing unto him how he was Gerismond their 10 
lawful king exiled by Torismond, what familiarity had ever 
been betwixt his father. Sir John of Bordeaux, and him, how 
faithful a subject he lived, and how honorable he died, promis- 
ing, for his sake, to give both him and his friend such courteous 
entertainment as his present estate could minister, and upon 15 
this made him one of his foresters. Rosader seeing it was the 
king, craved pardon for his boldness,- in that he did not do him 
due reverence, and humbly gave him thanks for his favorable 
courtesy. Gerismond, not satisfied yet with news, began to 
inquire if he had been lately in the court of Torismond, and 20 
whether he had seen his daughter Rosalynde or no ? At this 
Rosader fetched a deep sigh, and shedding many tears, could 
not answer: yet at last, gathering his spirits together, he re- 
vealed unto the king, how Rosalynde was banished, and how 
there was such a sympathy of affections between Alinda and 25 
her, that she chose rather to be partaker of her exile, than to 
part fellowship ; whereupon the unnatural king banished them 
both : ^^ and now they are wandered none knows whither, 
neither could any learn since their departure, the place of their 
abode." This news drave the king into a great melancholy, that 30 
presently he arose from all the company, and went into his 
privy chamber, so secret as the harbor of the woods would allow 
him. The company was all dashed at these tidings, and Rosader 



50 ROSALYNDE 

and Adam Spencer, having such opportunity, went to take their 
rest. Where we leave them, and return again to Torismond. 

The flight of Rosader came to the ears of Torismond, who 

hearing that Saladyne was sole heir of the lands of Sir John of 

5 Bordeaux^ desirous to possess such fair revenues, found just 

occasion to quarrel with Saladyne about the wrongs he proffered 

to his brother : and therefore, dispatching a herehault,^ he sent 

for Saladyne in all post-haste. ^Who marvelling what the matter 

should be, began to examine his own conscience, wherein he 

10 had offended his highness ; but emboldened with his innocence, 

. he boldly went with the herehault unto the court ; where, as 

soon as he came, he was not admitted into the presence of the 

king, but presently sent to prison. This greatly amazed Saladyne, 

chiefly in that the jailer had a straight charge over him, to see 

15 that he should be close prisoner. Many passionate thoughts 

came in his head, till at last he began to fall into consideration 

of his former follies, and to meditate with himself. Leaning his 

^ head on his hand, and his elbow on his knee, full of sorrow, 

grief and disquieted passions, he resolved into these terms : 

Saladyne's Complaint 

20 " Unhappy Saladyne ! whom folly hath led to these mis- 
fortunes, and wanton desires wrapped within the labyrinth of 
these calamities ! Are not the heavens doomers of men's deeds ; 
and holds not God a balance in his fist, to reward with favor, 
and revenge with justice ? O Saladyne, the faults of thy youth7 

25 as they were fond, so were they foul, and not only discovering 

\ little nurture, but blemishing the excellence of nature. Whelps 

\of one litter are ever most loving, and brothers that are sons of 

one father should live in friendship without jar. O Saladyne, so 

it should be ; but thou hast with the deer fed against the wind, 

30 with the crab strove against the stream, and sought to pervert 

1 herald. 



ROSALYNDE 5 1 

nature by unkindness. Rosader's wrongs, the wrongs of Ros- 
ader, Saladyne, cries for revenge ; his youth pleads to God to 
inflict some penance upon thee ; his virtues are pleas that en- 
force writs of displeasure to cross thee : thou hast highly abused 
thy kind and natural brother, and the heavens cannot spare to 5 
quite thee with punishment. There is no sting to the worm of 
conscience, no hell to a mind touched with guilt. Every wrong 
I offered him, called now to remembrance, wTingeth a drop of 
blood from my heart, every bad look, every frown pincheth 
me at the quick, and says, ' Saladyne thou hast sinned against 10 
Rosader.' Be penitent, and assign thyself some penance to dis- 
cover thy sorrow, and pacify his wrath." 

In the depth of his passion, he was sent for to the king, who 
with a look that threatened death entertained him, and demanded 
of him where his brother was. Saladyne made answer, that 15 
upon some riot made against the sheriff of the shire, he was 
fled from Bordeaux, but he knew not whither. 

'^ Nay, villain," quoth he, ^' I have heard of the wTongs thou 
hast proffered thy brother since the death of thy father, and by 
thy means have I lost a most brave and resolute chevalier. 20 
Therefore, in justice to punish thee, I spare thy life for thy 
father's sake, but banish thee for ever from the court and 
country of France ; and see thy departure be within ten days, 
else trust me thou shalt lose thy head." 

And with that the king flew away in a rage, and left poor 25 
Saladyne greatly perplexed ; who grieving at his exile, yet de- 
tenPxined to bear it with patience, and in penance of his former 
follies to traveLabroad in every coast till he had found out his 
brother Rosader. With whom now I begin. 

Rosader,. being thus preferred to the place of a forester 30 
by Gerismond, rooted out the remembrance of his brother's un- 
kindness by continual exercise, traversing the groves and wild 
forests, partly to hear the melody of the sweet birds which 



52 ROSALYNDE 

recorded,-^ and partly to show his diligent endeavor in his master's 
behalf. Yet whatsoever he did, or howsoever he walked, the 
lively image of Rosalynde remained in memory : on her sweet 
perfections he fed his thoughts, proving himself like the eagle a 
5 true-born bird, since as the one is known by beholding the sun, 
so was he by regarding excellent beauty. One day among the 
rest, finding a fit opportunity and place convenient, desirous to 
discover his woes to the woods, he engraved with his knife on 
the bark of a myrtle tree, this pretty estimate of his mistress' 
lo perfection: 

/ Sonetto 

Of all chaste birds the Phoenix doth excell, 
Of all strong beasts the lion bears the bell, 
Of all sweet flowers the rose doth sweetest smell, 
Of all fair maids my Rosalynde is fairest. 

15 Of all pure metals gold is only purest. 

Of all high trees the pine hath highest crest. 

Of all soft sweets I like my mistress' breast. 

Of all chaste thoughts my mistress' thoughts are rarest. 

Of all proud birds the eagle pleaseth Jove, 
20 Of pretty fowls kind Venus likes the dove, 

Of trees Minerva doth the olive love. 
Of all sweet nymphs I honor Rosalynde. 

Of all her gifts her wisdom pleaseth most. 
Of all her graces virtue she doth boast : 
25 For all these gifts my life and joy is lost, 

If Rosalynde prove cruel and unkind. 

In these and such like passions Rosader did every day eternize 
the name of his Rosalynde ; and this day especially when Aliena 
and Ganymede, enforced by the heat of the sun to seek for 
30 shelter, by good fortune arrived in that place, where this amor- 
ous forester registered his melancholy passions. They saw the 
sudden change of his looks, his folded arms, his passionate sighs : 

sang. 



ROSALYNDE 53 

they heard him often abruptly call on Rosalynde, who, poor soul, 
was as hotly burned as himself, but that she shrouded her pains 
in the cinders of honorable modesty. Whereupon, guessing him 
to be in love, and according to the nature of their sex being piti- 
ful in that behalf, they suddenly brake off his melancholy by their 5 
approach, and Ganymede shook him out of his dumps thus : 

'^ What news, forester ? hast thou wounded some deer, and 
lost him in the fall ? Care not man for so small a loss : thy fees 
was but the skin, the shoulder, and the horns : 't is hunter's luck 
to aim fair and miss ; and a woodman's fortune to strike and 10 
yet go without the game." 

'^ Thou art beyond the mark, Ganymede," quoth Aliena : 
" his passions are greater, and his sighs discovers more loss : 
perhaps in traversing these thickets, he hath seen some beau- 
tiful nymph, and is grown amorous." 15 

^Tt may be so," quoth Ganymede, '' for here he hath newly 
engraven some sonnet : come, and see the discourse of the 
forester's poems." 

Reading the sonnet over, and hearing him name Rosalynde, 
Aliena looked on Ganymede and laughed, and Ganymede look- 20 . 
ing back on the forester, and seeing it was Rosader, blushed ; 
yet thinking to shroud all under her page's apparel, she boldly 
returned to Rosader, and began thus : 

^^ I pray thee tell me, forester, what is this Rosalynde for ,u,^_ 
whom thou pinest away in such passions ? Is she some nymph 25 
that waits upon Diana's train, whose chastity thou hast de- 
ciphered in such epithets ? Or is she some shepherdess that 
haunts these plains whose beauty hath so bewitched thy fancy, 
whose name thou shadowest in covert under the figure of Rosa- 
lynde, as Ovid did Julia under the name of Corinna ? Or say 30 
me forsooth, is it that Rosalynde, of whom we shepherds have 
heard talk, she, forester, that is the daughter of Gerismond, 
that once was king, and now an outlaw in the forest of Arden ? " 



54 ROSALYNDE 

At this Rosader fetched a deep sigh, and said : 
'' It is she, O gentle swain, it is she ; that saint it is whom I 
serve, that goddess at whose shrine I do bend all my devotions ; 
the most fairest of all fairs, the phoenix of all that sex, and the 
5 purity of all earthly perfection." 

''And why, gentle forester, if she be so beautiful, and thou 
so amorous, is there such a disagreement in thy thoughts ? 
Happily she resembleth the rose, that is sweet but full of 
prickles ? or the serpent Regius that hath scales as glorious as 

10 the sun and a breath as infectious as the Aconitum is deadly ? 
So thy Rosalynde may be most amiable and yet unkind ; full of 
favor and yet froward, coy without wit, and disdainful without 
reason." 

'' O Shepherd," quoth Rosader, '' knewest thou her person- 

15 age, graced with the excellence of all perfection, being a harbor 
wherein the graces shroud their virtues, thou wouldest not breathe 
out such blasphemy against the beauteous Rosalynde. She is a 
diamond, bright but not hard, yet of most chaste operation ; a 
pearl so orient,^ that it can be stained with no blemish ; a rose 

20 without prickles, and a princess absolute as well in beauty as in 
virtue. But I, unhappy I, have let mine eye soar with the eagle 
against so bright a sun that I am quite blind : I have with Apollo 
enamored myself of a Daphne, not, as she, disdainful, but far 
more chaste than Daphne : I have with Ixion laid my love on 

25 Juno, and shall, I fear, embrace nought but a cloud. Ah, Shep- 
herd, I have reached at a star : my desires have mounted above 
my degree, and my thoughts above my fortunes. I being a 
peasant, have ventured to gaze on a princess, whose honors are 
too high to vouchsafe such base loves." 

30 ''Why, forester," quoth Ganymede, "comfort thyself; be 
blithe and frolic man. Love souseth ^ as low as she soareth 
high : Cupid shoots at a rag as soon as at a robe ; and Venus' 

1 precious. 2 swoops, a term used in falconry. 



ROSALYNDE 55 

eye that was so curious, sparkled favor on pole-footed ^ Vulcan. 
Fear not, man, women's looks are not tied to dignity's feathers, 
nor make they curious esteem where the stone is found, but 
what is the virtue. Fear„XLQl,._fQrester ; faint heart never won 
fair ladj._ But where lives Rosalynde now ? at the court ? " 5 

'' Oh no," quoth Rosader, '' she lives I know not where, and 
that is my sorrow ; banished by Torismond, and that is my hell : 
for might I but find her sacred personage, and plead before the 
bar of her pity the plaint of my passions, hope tells me she 
would grace me with some favor, and that would suffice as a 10 
recompense of all my former miseries." 

'^ Much have I heard of thy mistress' excellence, and I know, 
forester, thou canst describe her at the full, as one that hast sur- 
veyed all her parts with a curious eye ; then do me that favor, 
to tell me what her perfections be." 15 

" That I will," quoth Rosader, ''for I glory to make all ears 
wonder at my mistress' excellence." 

And with that he pulled a paper forth his bosom, wherein he 

read this : 

Rosalyjide' s Description 

Like to the clear 2 in highest sphere 20 

Where all imperial glory shines, 
Of selfsame color is her hair, 
Whether unfolded or in twines : 

~~^ Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde ! 
Her eyes are sapphires set in snow, ^ 25 

Refining heaven by every wink : A 

The gods do fear whenas they glow, 
Ahd I do tremble when I think : 

Heigh ho, would she were mine. 

Her cheeks are like the blushing cloud 30 

That beautifies Aurora's face, 
Or like the silver crimson shroud 
That Phoebus' smiling looks doth grace : 
Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 

1 club-footed. 2 brightness. 



S6 ROSALYNDE 

Her lips are like two budded roses, 
Whom ranks of lilies neighbor nigh, 
Within which bounds she balm encloses, 
Apt to entice a deity : 
5 . Heigh ho, would she were mine. 

Her neck, like to a stately tower 

Where love himself imprisoned lies, 

To watch for glances every hour 

From her divine and sacred eyes : 
10 Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 

Her paps are centres of delight, 

Her paps are orbs of heavenly frame. 

Where nature moulds the dew of light. 

To feed perfection with the same : 
15 Heigh ho, would she were mine. 

With orient pearl, with ruby red. 

With marble white, with sapphire blue, 

Her body every way is fed. 

Yet soft in touch, and sweet in view : 
20 Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 

Nature herself her shape admires. 

The gods are wounded in her sight. 

And Love forsakes his heavenly fires 

And at her eyes his brand doth light : 
25 Heigh ho, would she were mine. 

Then muse not, nymphs, though I bemoan 
The absence of fair Rosalynde, 
Since for her fair ^ there is fairer none, 
Nor for her virtues so divine : 
30 Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde. 

Heigh ho, my heart, would God that she were mine ! 

Periit^ quia deperibat. 

'' Believe me," quoth Ganymede, '' either the forester is 
an exquisite painter, or Rosalynde far above wonder; so it 
makes me blush to hear how women should be so excel- 
35 lent, and pages so unperfect." 

1 fairness. 



ROSALYNDE 57 

Rosader beholding her earnestly, answered thus : 

^^ Truly, gentle page, thou hast cause to complain thee wert 
thou the substance, but resembling the shadow content thyself ; 
for it is excellence enough to be like the excellence of nature. '^ 
. " He hath answered you, Ganymede," quoth Aliena, '^ it is 5 
enough for pages to wait on beautiful ladies, and not to be 
beautiful themselves." 

^^ O mistress," quoth Ganymede, " hold you your peace, for 
you are partial. Who knows not, but that all women have de- 
sire to tie sovereignty to their petticoats, and ascribe beauty to 10 
themselves, where, if boys might put on their garments, perhaps 
they would prove as comely ; if not as comely, it may be more 
courteous. But tell me, forester," and with that she turned to 
Rosader, ^^ under whom maintainest thou thy walk ? " 

"Gentle swain, under the king of outlaws," said he, "the 15 
unfortunate Gerismond, who having lost his kingdom, crowneth 
his thoughts with content, accounting it better to govern among 
poor men in peace, than great men in danger." 

" But hast thou not," said she, "having so melancholy op- 
portunities as this forest affordeth thee, written more sonnets 20 
in commendations of thy mistress ? " 

" I have, gentle swain," quoth he, " but they be not about 
me. To-morrow by dawn of day, if your flocks feed in these 
pastures, I will bring them you, wherein you shall read my pas- 
sions whilst I feel them, judge my patience when you read it : 25 
till when I bid farewell." So giving both Ganymede and Aliena 
a gentle good-night, he resorted to his lodge, leaving Aliena and 
Ganymede to their prittle-prattle. 

" So Ganymede," said Aliena, the forester being gone, " you 
are mightily beloved ; men make ditties in your praise, spend 30 
sighs for your sake, make an idol of your beauty. Believe me, 
it grieves me not a little to see the poor man so pensive, and 
you so pitiless." 



58 ROSALYNDE 

'' Ah, Aliena," quoth she, '' be not peremptory in your judg- 
ments. I hear Rosalynde praised as I am Ganymede, but were 
I Rosalynde, I could answer the forester : if he mourn for love, 
there are medicines for love : Rosalynde cannot be fair and un- 
5 kind. And. so, madam, you see it is time to fold our flocks, or 
else Corydon will frown and say you will never prove good 
housewife." 

With that they put their sheep into the cotes, and went home 
to her friend Corydon's cottage, Aliena as merry as might be 

lo that she was thus in the company of her Rosalynde ; but she, 
poor soul, that had love her lodestar, and her thoughts set 
on fire with the flame of fancy, could take no rest, but being 
alone began to consider what passionate penance poor Rosader 
was enjoined to by love and fortune, that at last she fell into 

1 5 this humor with herself : 

Rosalynde Passionate Alone 

" Ah, Rosalynde, how the Fates have set down in their synod 
to make thee unhappy : for when Fortune hath done her worst, 
then Love comes in to begin a new tragedy : she seeks to lodge 
her son in thine eyes, and to kindle her fires in thy bosom. Be- 

2o ware, fond girl, he is an unruly guest to harbor ; for cutting in 
by entreats, he will not be thrust out by force, and her fires are 
fed with such fuel, as no water is able to quench. Seest thou 
not how Venus seeks to wrap thee in her labyrinth, wherein is 
pleasure at the entrance, but within, sorrows, cares, and dis- 

25 content ? She is a Siren, stop thine ears to her melody ; she is 
a basilisk, shut thy eyes and gaze not at her lest thou perish. 
Thou art now placed in the country content, where are heavenly 
thoughts and mean desires : in those lawns where thy flocks feed, 
Diana haunts : be as her nymphs chaste, and enemy to love, for 

30 there is no greater honor to a maid, than to account of fancy as 
a mortal foe to their sex. Daphne, that bonny wench, was not 



ROSALYNDE 59 

turned into a bay tree, as the poets feign : but for her chastity 
her fame was immortal, resembling the laurel that is ever green. 
Follow thou her steps, Rosalynde, and the rather, for that thou 
art an exile, and banished from the court ; whose distress, and 
it is appeased with patience, so it would be renewed with amo- 5 
rous passions. Have mind on thy forepassed fortunes ; fear the 
worst, and entangle not thyself with present fancies, lest loving 
in haste, thou repent thee at leisure. Ah, but yet, Rosalynde, it 
is Rosader that courts thee ; one who as he is beautiful, so 
he is virtuous, and harboreth in his mind as many good quali- 10 
ties as his face is shadowed with gracious favors ; and ther e- 
fore, Rosalynde, stoop to love, -lest, being either too coy or 
too cruel, Venusjwaxwroth, and plague thee with the reward, 
of disdain.'' 

Rosalynde, thus passionate, was wakened from her dumps ^ 15 
by 'Aliena, who said it was time to go to bed. Corydon swore 
that was true, for Charles' Wain was risen in the north. Where- 
upon each taking leave of other, went to their rest, all but the 
poor Rosalynde, who was so full of passions, that she could not 
possess any content. Well, leaving her to her broken slumbers, 20 
expect what was performed by them the next morning. 

The sun was no sooner stepped from the bed of Aurora, but 
Aliena was wakened by Ganymede, who, restless all night, had 
tossed in her passions, saying it was then time to go to the field 
to unfold their sheep. Aliena, that spied where the hare was by 25 
the hounds, and could see day at a little hole, thought to be 
pleasant with her Ganymede, and therefore replied thus : 

'^ What, wanton ! the sun is but new up, and as yet Iris' 
riches lie folded in the bosom of Flora : Phoebus hath not dried 
up the pearled dew, and so long Corydon hath taught me, it is 30 
not fit to lead the sheep abroad, lest, the dew being unwhole- 
some, they get the rot : but now see I the old proverb true, he 

1 meditation. 



6o ROSALYNDE 

is in haste whom the devil drives, and where love pricks for- 
ward, there is no worse death than delay. Ah, my good page, 
is there fancy in thine eye, and passions in thy heart ? What, 
hast thou wrapt love in thy looks, and set all thy thoughts on 
5 fire by affection ? I tell thee, it is a flame as hard to be quenched 
as that of Aetna. But nature must have her course : women's 
eyes have faculty attractive like the jet, and retentive like the 
diamond : they dally in the delight of fair objects, till gazing on 
the panther's beautiful skin, repenting experience tell them he 

10 hath a devouring paunch." 

" ^^ Come on," quoth Ganymede, ^^ this sermon of yours is but 
a subtlety to lie still a-bed, because either you think the morn- 
ing cold, or else I being gone, you would steal a nap : this shift 
carries no palm, and therefore up and away. And for Love, let 

1 5 me alone ; I '11 whip him away with nettles, and set disdain as 
a charm to withstand his forces : and therefore look you to your- 
self ; be not too bold, for Venus can make you bend, nor too 
coy, for Cupid hath a piercing dart, that will make you cry 
Peccavir 

20 " And that is it," quoth Aliena, " that hath raised you so early 
this morning." And with that she slipped on her petticoat, and 
start up ; and as soon as she had made her ready, and taken 
her breakfast, away go these two with their bag and bottles to 
the field, in more pleasant content of mind than ever they were 

25 in the court of Torismond. 

They came no sooner nigh the folds, but they might see 
where their discontented forester was walking in his melan- 
choly. As soon as Aliena saw him, she smiled and said to 
Ganymede : 

30 ^^ Wipe your eyes, sweeting, for yonder is your sweetheart 
this morning in deep prayers, no doubt, to Venus, that she may 
make you as pitiful as he is passionate. Come on, Ganymede, 
I pray thee, let 's have a little sport with him." 



ROSALYNDE 6 1 

'^ Content," quoth Ganymede, and with that, to waken him 
out of his deep memento} he began thus : 

" Forester, good fortune to thy thoughts, and ease to thy pas- 
sions. What makes you so early abroad this morn ? in contem- 
plation, no doubt, of your Rosalynde. Take heed, forester ; 5 
step not too far, the ford may be deep, and you slip over the 
shoes : I tell thee, flies have their spleen, the ants choler, 
the least hairs shadows, and the smallest loves great desires. 
'Tis good, forester, to love, but not to overlove, lest in lov- 
ing her that likes not thee, thou fold thyself in an endless 10 
labyrinth." 

Rosader, seeing the fair shepherdess and her pretty swain in 
whose company he felt the greatest ease of his care, he returned 
them a salute on this manner : 

''Gentle shepherds, all hail, and as healthful be your flocks 15 
as you happy in content. Love is restless, and my. bed is but 
the cell of my bane, in that there I find busy thoughts and 
broken slumbers : here (although everywhere passionate) yet I 
brook love with more patience, in that every object feeds mine 
eye with variety of fancies. When I look on Flora's beauteous 20 
tapestry, checked with the pride of all her treasure, I call to 
mind the fair face of Rosalynde, whose heavenly hue exceeds 
the rose and the lily in their highest excellence : the brightness 
of Phoebus' shine puts me in mind to think of the sparkling 
flames that flew from her eyes, and set my heart first on fire : 25 
the sweet harmony of the birds, puts me in remembrance of the 
rare melody of her voice, which like the Siren enchanteth the 
ears of the hearer. Thus in contemplation I salve my sorrows, 
with applying the perfection of every object to the excellence of 
her qualities." 30 

'' She is much beholding unto you," quoth Aliena, '' and so 
much, that I have oft wished with myself, that if I should ever 

1 revery. 



62 ROSALYNDE 

prove as amorous as Oenone, I might find as faithful a Paris 
as yourself." 

'' How say you by this item, forester ? " quoth Ganymede, 
^' the fair shepherdess favors you, who is mistress of so many 
5 flocks. Leave off, man, the supposition of Rosalynde's love, 
whenas watching at her you rove beyond the moon, and cast 
your looks upon my mistress, who no doubt is as fair though 
not so royal ; one bird in the hand is worth two in the wood : 
better possess the love of Aliena than catch furiously at the 
lo shadow of Rosalynde." 

'' I '11 tell thee boy," quoth Rosader, ^^ so is my fancy fixed 
on my Rosalynde, that were thy mistress as fair as Leda or 
Danae, whom Jove courted in transformed shapes, mine eyes 
would not vouch to entertain their beauties ; and so hath love 
15 locked me in her perfections, that I had rather only contemplate 
in her beauties, than absolutely possess the excellence of any 
other." 

"Venus is to blame, forester, if having so true a servant of 

you, she reward you not with Rosalynde, if Rosalynde were 

20 more fairer than herself. But leaving this prattle, now I '11 put 

you in mind of your promise about those sonnets, which you 

said were at home in your lodge." 

'^ I have them about me," quoth Rosader, " let us sit down, 

and then you shall hear what a poetical fury love will infuse into 

25 a man." With that they sate down upon a green bank, shadowed 

with fig trees, and Rosader, fetching a deep sigh, read them 

this sonnet : 

Rosader^ s Sonnet 

In sorrow's cell I laid me down to sleep, ' 
But waking woes were jealous of mine eyes, 
30 They made them watch, and bend themselves to weep, 

But weeping tears their want could not suffice : 
Yet since for her they wept who guides my heart, 
They weeping smile, and triumph in their smart. 



ROSALYNDE 63 

Of these my tears a fountain fiercely springs, 

Where Venus bains ^ herself incensed with love, 
Where Cupid bowseth 2 his fair feathered wings ; 
But I behold what pains I must approve. 

Care drinks it dry ; but when on her I think, 5 

Love makes me weep it full unto the brink. 

Meanwhile my sighs yield truce unto my tears, 

By them the winds increased and fiercely blow : 
Yet when I sigh the flame more plain appears, 

And by their force with greater power doth glow : 10 

Amid these pains, all phoenix-like I thrive 
Since love, that yields me death, may life revive.^ 

Rosader en esperance. 

" Now, surely, forester," quoth Aliena, '' when thou madest 
this sonnet, thou wert in some amorous quandary, neither too 
fearful as despairing of thy mistress' favors, nor too gleesome 15 
as hoping in thy fortunes." 

^^ I can smile," quoth Ganymede, ^^ at the sonettos, canzones, 
madrigals, rounds and roundelays, that these pensive patients 
pour out when their eyes are more full of wantonness, than 
their hearts of passions. Then, as the fishers put the sweetest 20 
bait to the fairest fish, so these Ovidians, holding amo in their 
tongues, when their thoughts come at haphazard, write that 
they be rapt in an endless labyrinth of sorrow, when walking in 
the large lease of liberty, they only have their humors in their 
inkpot. If they find women so fond, that they will with such 25 
painted lures come to their lust, then they triumph till they be 
full-gorged with pleasures ; and then fly they away, like ramage ^ 
kites, to their own content, leaving the tame fool, their mistress, 
full of fancy, yet without even a feather. If they miss, as deal- 
ing with some wary wanton, that wants not such a one as them- 30 
selves, but spies their subtlety, they end their amours with a few 

1 bathes. 2 dips. 

3 This song is said to be an imitation of Desportes's sonnet beginning, 

Si je me siez a 1' ombre aussi soudainement. 

4 wild. 



64 ROSALYNDE 

feigned sighs ; and so their excuse is, their mistress is cruel, and 
they smother passions with patience. Such, gentle forester, we 
may deem you to be, that rather pass away the time here in 
these woods with writing amorets, than to be deeply enamored 
5 (as you say) of your Rosalynde. If you be such a one, then I 
pray God, when you think your fortunes at the highest, and your 
desires to be most excellent, then that you may with Ixion em- 
brace Juno in a cloud, and have nothing but a marble mistress 
to release your martyrdom ; but if you be true and trusty, eye- 

lo pained and heart-sick, then accursed be Rosalynde if she prove 
cruel : for, forester (I flatter not) thou art worthy of as fair as 
she." Aliena, spying the storm by the wind, smiled to see how 
Ganymede flew to the fist without any call ; but Rosader, who 
took him flat for a shepherd's swain, made him this answer : 

15 "Trust me, swain," quoth Rosader, "but my canzon was 
written in no such humor ; for mine eye and my heart are rela- 
tives, the one drawing fancy by sight, the other entertaining her 
by sorrow. If thou sawest my Rosalynde, with what beauties 
nature hath favored her, with what perfection the heavens hath 

20 graced her, with what qualities the' gods have endued her, then 
wouldst thou say, there is none so fickle that could be fleeting 
unto her. If she had been Aeneas' Dido, had Venus and Juno 
both scolded him from Carthage, yet her excellence, despite of 
them, would have detained him at Tyre. If Phyllis had been as 

25 beauteous, or Ariadne as virtuous, or both as honorable and 
excellent as she, neither had the filbert tree sorrowed in the 
death of despairing Phyllis, nor the stars been graced with 
Ariadne, but Demophoon and Theseus had been trusty to 
their paragons. I will tell thee, swain, if with a deep insight 

30 thou couldst pierce into the secret of my loves, and see what 
deep impressions of her idea affection hath made in my heart, 
then wouldst thou confess I were passing passionate, and no 
less endued with admirable patience." 



ROSALYNDE 65 

^* Why," quoth Aliena, '^ needs there patience in love ? " 

^* Or else in nothing," quoth Rosader; ''for it is a restless 
sore that hath no ease, a canker that still frets, a disease that 
taketh away all hope of sleep. If then so many sorrows, sudden 
joys, momentary pleasures, continual fears, daily griefs, and 5 
nightly woes be found in love, then is not he to be accounted 
patient that smothers all these passions with silence ? " 

'' Thou speakest by experience," quoth Ganymede, '' and 
therefore we hold all thy words for axioms. But is love such 
a lingering malady ? " 10 

'' It is," quoth he, '' either extreme or mean, according to the 
mind of the party that entertains it ; for, as the weeds grow 
longer untouched than the pretty flowers, and the flint lies safe 
in the quarry when the emerald is suffering the lapidary's tool, 
so mean men are freed from Venus' injuries, when kings are 15 
environed with a labyrinth of her cares. The whiter the lawn . 
is, the deeper is the mole ^ ; the more purer the chrysolite, the 
sooner stained ; and such as have their hearts full of hoiior, 
have their loves full of the greatest sorrows. But in whomso- 
ever," quoth Rosader, '' he fixeth his dart, he never leaveth to 20 
assault him, till either he hath won him to folly or fancy ; for 
as the moon never goes without the star Lunisequa, so a lover 
never goeth without the unrest of his thoughts. For proof you 
shall hear another fancy of my making." 

'' Now do, gentle forester," quoth Ganymede ; and with that 25 
he read over this sonetto : 

Rosader^ s second Sonetto 

Turn I my looks unto the skies, 
Love with his arrows wounds mine eyes ; 
. If so I gaze upon the ground, 
Love then in every flower is found. ^o 

Search I the shade to fly my pain, 
He meets me in the shade again ; 

1 stain. 



66 ROSALYNDE 

Wend I to walk in secret grove, 

Even there I meet with sacred Love. 

If so I bain ^ me in the spring, 

Even on the brink I hear him sing : ' 
5 If so I meditate alone, 

He will be partner of my moan. 

If so I mourn, he weeps with me, 

And where I am there will he be. 

Whenas I talk of Rosalynde 
10 The god from coyness waxeth kind, 

And seems in selfsame flames to fry 

Because he loves as well as I. 

Sweet Rosalynde, for pity rue ; 

For why, than Love I am more true : 
^5 He, if he speed, will quickly fly, 

But in thy love I live and die. 

'^ How like you this sonnet ? " quoth Rosader. 

^^ Marry," quoth'^Ganymede, '' for the pen well, for the pas- 
sion ill ; for as I praise the one, I pity the other, in that thou 
20 shouldst hunt after a cloud, and love either without reward or 
regard." 

^^ 'Tis not her frowardness," quoth Rosader, '' but my hard 

fortunes, whose destinies have crossed me with her absence ; 

for did she feel my loves, she would not let me linger in these 

25 sorrows. Women, as they are fair, so they respect faith, and 

estimate more, if they be honorable, the will than the wealth, 

having loyalty the object whereat they aim their fancies. But 

leaving off these interparleys,^ you shall hear my last sonetto, 

and then you have heard all my poetry." And with that he 

30 sighed out this : 

Rosader's third Sonnet 

Of virtuous love myself may boast alone. 

Since no suspect my service may attaint : 
For perfect fair she is the only one, 
Whom I esteem for my beloved saint. 
nt Thus, for my faith I only bear the bell, 

And for her fair she only doth excel. 

1 bathe. 2 discussions. 



ROSALYNDE 6/ 

Then let fond Petrarch shroud his Laura's praise, 

And Tasso cease to publish his affect, 
Since mine the faith confirmed at all assays, 
And hers the fair, which all men do respect. 

My lines her fair, her fair my faith assures ; 5 

Thus I by love, and love by me endures. 

'' Thus," quoth Rosader, '^ here is an end of my poems, but 
for all this no release of my passions ; so that I resemble him 
that in the depth of his distress hath none but the echo to 
answer him." 10 

Ganymede, pitying her Rosader, thinking to drive him out of 
this amorous melancholy, said that now the sun was in his mer- 
idional heat and that it was high noon, '^ therefore we shepherds 
say, 'tis time to go to dinner ; for the sun and our stomachs are 
shepherds' dials. Therefore, forester, if thou wilt take such fare 1 5 
as comes out of our homely scrips, welcome shall answer what- 
soever thou wantest in dehcates." 

Aliena took the entertainment by the end, and told Rosader 
he should be her guest. He thanked them heartily, and sate 
with them down to dinner, where they had such cates as coun- 20 
try state did allow them, sauced with such content, and such 
sweet prattle, as it seemed far more sweet than all their courtly 
junkets. 

As soon as they had taken their repast, Rosader, giving them 
thanks for his good cheer, would have been gone ; but Gany- 25 
mede, that was loath to let him pass out of her presence, began 
thus : 

'^ Nay, forester," quoth he, '' if thy business be not the greater, 
seeing thou sayest thou art so deeply in love, let me see how 
thou canst woo : I will represent Rosalynde, and thou shalt 30 
be as thou art, Rosader. See in some amorous eclogue, how 
if Rosalynde were present, how thou couldst court her ; and 
while we sing of love, AHena shall tune her pipe and play us 
melody." 



68 ROSALYNDE 

'' Content/' quoth Rosader, and Aliena, she, to show her will- 
ingness, drew forth a recorder,^ and began to wind it. Then the 
loving forester began thus : 

The wooing Eclogue betwixt Rosalynde and Rosader 

Rosader 

I pray thee, nymph, by all the working words, 
5 By all the tears and sighs that lovers know. 

Or what or thoughts or faltering tongue affords, 

I crave for mine in ripping up my woe. 

Sweet Rosalynde, my love (would God, my love) 

My life (would God, my life) aye, pity me ! 
10 Thy lips are kind, and humble like the dove, 

And but with beauty, pity will not be. 

Look on mine eyes, made red with rueful tears, 

From whence the rain of true remorse descendeth, 

All pale in looks am I though young in years, 
1 5 And nought but love or death my days befriendeth. 

Oh let no stormy rigor knit thy brows, 

Which love appointed for his mercy seat : 

The tallest tree by Boreas' breath it bows ; 

The iron yields with hammer, and to heat. 
20 O Rosalynde, then be thou pitiful, 

For Rosalynde is only beautiful. 

Rosalynde 

Love's wantons arm their trait'rous suits with tears, 
With vows, with oaths, with looks, with showers of gold ; 
But when the fruit of their affects appears, 

25 The simple heart by subtle sleights is sold. 

Thus sucks the yielding ear the poisoned bait. 
Thus feeds the heart upon his endless harms, 
Thus glut the thoughts themselves on self-deceit. 
Thus blind the eyes their sight by subtle charms. 

30 The lovely looks, the sighs that storm so sore. 

The dew of deep-dissembled doubleness. 
These may attempt, but are of power no more 
Where beauty leans to wit and soothfastness. 
O Rosader, then be thou wittiful, 

35 For Rosalynde scorns foolish pitiful. 

1 an old instrument, resembling the flageolet. 



ROSALYNDE 69 

ROSADER 

I pray thee, Rosalynde, by those sweet eyes 

That stain the sun in shine, the morn in clear. 

By those sweet cheeks where Love encamped Hes 

To kiss the roses of the springing year. 

I tempt thee, Rosalynde, by ruthful plaints, 5 

Not seasoned with deceit or fraudful guile. 

But firm in pain, far more than tongue depaints. 

Sweet nymph, be kind, and grace me with a smile. 

So may the heavens preserve from hurtful food 

Thy harmless flocks ; so may the summer yield 10 

The pride of all her riches and her good, 

To fat thy sheep, the citizens of field. 

Oh, leave to arm thy lovely brows with scorn : 

The birds their beak, the lion hath his tail. 

And lovers nought but sighs and bitter mourn, 15 

The spotless fort of fancy to assail. 

O Rosalynde, then be thou pitiful. 

For Rosalynde is only beautiful. 

Rosalynde 
The hardened steel by fire is brought in frame : 

Rosader 

And Rosalynde, my love, than any wool more softer ; 20 

And shall not sighs her tender heart inflame ? 

Rosalynde 
Were lovers true, maids would believe them ofter. 

Rosader 
Truth, and regard, and honor, guide my love. 

Rosalynde 
Fain would I trust, but yet I dare not try. 

Rosader 

pity me, sweets nymph, and do but prove. 25 

Rosalynde 

1 would resist, but yet I know not why. 



70 ROSALYNDE 

ROSADER 

O Rosalynde, be kind, for times will change, 
Thy looks ay nill be fair as now they be ; 
Thine age from beauty may thy looks estrange : 
Ah, yield in time, sweet nymph, and pity me. 

Rosalynde 

5 O Rosalynde, thou must be pitiful, 

For Rosader is young and beautiful. 

ROSADER 

Oh, gain more great than kingdoms or a crown ! 

Rosalynde 
Oh, trust betrayed if Rosader abuse me. 

Rosader 

First let the heavens conspire to pull me down 
10 And heaven and earth as abject quite refuse me. 

Let sorrows stream about my hateful bower. 
And restless horror hatch within my breast : 
Let beauty's eye afflict me with a lour, 
Let deep despair pursue me without rest, 
1 5 Ere Rosalynde my loyalty disprove, 

Ere Rosalynde accuse me for unkind. 

Rosalynde 

Then Rosalynde will grace thee with her love 
Then Rosalynde will have thee still in mind. 

Rosader 

Then let me triumph more than Tithon's dear, 
2o Since Rosalynde will Rosader respect : 

Then let my face exile his sorry cheer, 
And frolic in the comfort of affect ; 
And say that Rosalynde is only pitiful, 
Since Rosalynde is only beautiful. 



ROSALYNDE 71 

When thus they had finished their courting eclogue in such a 
familiar clause, Ganymede, as augur of some good fortunes to 
light upon their affections, began to be thus pleasant : 

'^ How now, forester, have I not fitted your turn ? have I not 
played the woman handsomely, and showed myself as coy in 5 
grants as courteous in desires, and been as full of suspicion 
as men of flattery ? and yet to salve all, jumped -^ I not all up 
with the sweet union of love ? Did not Rosalynde content her 
Rosader?" 

The forester at this smiling, shook his head, and folding his 10 
arms made this merry reply : 

'' Truth, gentle swain, Rosader hath his Rosalynde ; but as 
Ixion had Juno, who, thinking to possess a goddess, only em- 
braced a cloud : in these imaginary fruitions of fancy I resemble 
the birds that fed themselves with Zeuxis' painted grapes ; but 1 5 
they grew so lean with pecking at shadows, that they were glad, 
with Aesop's cock, to scrape for a barley cornel.^ So fareth it 
with me, who to feed myself with the hope of my mistress's 
favors, sooth myself in thy suits, and only in conceit reap a 
wished-for content ; but if my food be no better than such 20 
amorous dreams, Venus at the year's end shall find me but a 
lean lover. Yet do I take these follies for high fortunes, and 
hope these feigned affections do divine some unfeigned end 
of ensuing fancies." 

'^ And thereupon," quoth Aliena, ^^ I '11 play the priest : from 25 
this day forth Ganymede shall call thee Husband, and thou shall 
call Ganymede wife, and so we '11 have a marriage." 

^^ Content," quoth Rosader, and laughed. 

" Content," quoth Ganymede, and changed as red as a rose : 
and so with a smile and a blush, they made up this jesting match, 30 
that after proved to a marriage in earnest, Rosader full little 
thinking he had wooed and won his Rosalynde. 
1 ended. 2 kernel. 



72 ROSALYNDE 

But all was well ; hope is a sweet string to harp on, and 
therefore let the forester awhile shape himself to his shadow, 
and tarry fortune's leisure, till she may make a metamorphosis 
fit for his purpose. I digress ; and therefore to Aliena, who 
5 said, the wedding was not worth a pin, unless there were some 
cheer, nor that bargain well made that was not stricken up with 
a cup of wine : and therefore she willed Ganymede to set out 
such cates as they had, and to draw out her bottle, charging the 
forester, as he had imagined his loves, so to conceit these cates 

10 to be a most sumptuous banquet, and to take a mazer ^ of wine 
and to drink to his Rosalynde ; which Rosader did, and so they 
passed away the day in many pleasant devices. Till at last 
Aliena perceived time would tarry no man, and that the sun 
waxed very low, ready to set, which made her shorten their 

IS amorous prattle, and end the banquet with a fresh carouse: 
which done, they all three arose, and Aliena broke off thus : 

" Now, forester, Phoebus that all this while hath been partaker 
of our sports, seeing every woodman more fortunate in his loves 
than he in his fancies, seeing thou hast won Rosalynde when he 

2o could not woo Daphne, hides his head for shame and bids us 
adieu in a cloud. Our sheep, they poor wantons, wander to- 
wards their folds, as taught by nature their due times of rest, 
which tells us, forester, we must depart. Marry, though there 
were a marriage, yet I must carry this night the bride with me, 

25 and to-morrow morning if you meet us here, I '11 promise to 
deliver you her as good a maid as I find her." 

" Content," quoth Rosader, ^^ 'tis enough for me in the night 
to dream on love, that in the day am so fond to doat on love : 
and so till to-morrow you to your folds, and I will to my lodge." 

30 And thus the forester and they parted. 

He was no sooner gone, but Aliena and Ganymede went and 
folded their flocks, and taking up their hooks, their bags, and 

1 mug. 



ROSALYNDE 73 

their bottles, hied homeward. By the way Aliena, to make the 
time seem short, began to prattle with Ganymede thus : 

'' I have heard them say, that what the fates forepoint, that 
fortune pricketh down with a period ; that the stars are sticklers 
in Venus' court, and desire hangs at the heel of destiny : if it 5 
be so, then by all probable conjectures, this match will be a 
marriage : for if augurism be authentical, or the divines' dooms 
principles, it cannot be but such a shadow portends the issue of 
a substance, for to that end did the gods force the conceit of 
this eclogue, that they might discover the ensuing consent 10 
of your affections : so that ere it be long, I hope, in earnest, 
to dance at your wedding." 

" Tush," quoth Ganymede, '^ all is not malt that is cast on the 
kiln : there goes more words to a bargain than one : Love feels 
no footing in the air, and fancy holds it slippery harbor to nestle 1 5 
in the tongue : the match is not yet so surely made, but he may 
miss of his market ; but if fortune be his friend, I will not be 
his foe : and so I pray you, gentle mistress Aliena, take it."' 

'^ I take all things well," quoth she, '' that is your content, and 
am glad Rosader is yours ; for now I hope your thoughts will 20 
be at quiet ; your eye that ever looked at love, will now lend a 
glance on your lambs, and then they will prove more buxom and 
you more blithe, for the eyes of the master feeds the cattle." 

As thus they were in chat, they spied old Corydon where he 
came plodding to meet them, who told them supper was ready, 25 
which news made them speed them home. Where we will leave 
them to the next morrow, and return to Saladyne. 

All this while did poor Saladyne, banished from Bordeaux 
and the court of France by Torismond, wander up and down 
in the forest of Arden, thinking to get to Lyons, and so travel 30 
through Germany into Italy : but the forest being full of by- 
paths, and he unskilful of the country coast, slipped out of the 
way, and chanced up into the desert, not far from the place 



74 ROSALYNDE 

where Gerismond was, and his brother Rosader. Saladyne, 
weary with wandering up and down and hungry with long fast- 
ing, finding a little cave by the side of a thicket, eating such 
fruit as the forest did afford and contenting himself with such 
5 drink as nature had provided and thirst made delicate, after his 
repast he fell in a dead sleep. As thus he lay, a hungry lion 
came hunting down the edge of the grove for prey, and espy- 
ing Saladyne began to seize upon him : but seeing he lay still 
without any motion, he left to touch him, for that lions hate to 

10 prey on dead carcases ; and yet desirous to have some food, the 
lion lay down and watched to see if he would stir. While thus 
Saladyne slept secure, fortune that was careful of her champion 
began to smile, and brought it so to pass, that Rosader, having 
stricken a deer that but lightly hurt fled through the thicket, came 

1 5 pacing down by the grove with a boar-spear in his hand in great 
haste. He spied where a man lay asleep, and a lion fast by him : 
amazed at this sight, as he stood gazing, his nose on the sudden 
bled, which made him conjecture it was some friend of his. 
Whereupon drawing more nigh, he might easily discern his visage, 

2o perceived by his physnomy that it was his brqther Saladyne, 
which drave Rosader into a deep passion, as a man perplexed 
at the sight of so unexpected a chance, marvelling what should 
drive his brother to traverse those secret deserts, without any 
company, in such distress and forlorn sort. But the present time 

25 craved no such doubting ambages,-^ for either he must resolve to 

hazard his life for his relief, or else steal away, and leave him to 

the cruelty of the lion. In which doubt he thus briefly debated 

with himself : 

Rosader's Meditation 

'' Now, Rosader, fortune that long hath whipped thee with 
o nettles, means to salve thee with roses, and having crossed thee 
with many frowns, now she presents thee with the brightness of 

1 windings. 



\ 
\ 



ROSALYNDE 75 

her favors. Thou that didst count thyself the most distressed 
of all men, may est account thyself the most fortunate amongst 
men, if Fortune can make men happy, or sweet revenge be 
wrapped in a pleasing content. Thou seest Saladyne thine 
enemy, the worker of thy misfortunes, and the efficient cause 5 
of thine exile, subject to the cruelty of a merciless lion, brought 
into this misery by the gods, that they might seem just in 
revenging his rigor, and thy injuries. Seest thou not how the 
stars are in a favorable aspect, the planets in some pleasing 
conjunction, the fates agreeable to thy thoughts, and the des- lo 
tinies performers of thy desires, in that Saladyne shall die, and 
thou be free of his blood : he receive meed for his amiss, and 
thou erect his tomb with innocent hands. Now, Rosader, shalt 
thou return unto Bordeaux and enjoy thy possessions by birth, 
and his revenues by inheritance : now mayest thou triumph in 1 5 
love, and hang fortune's altars with garlands. For when Rosa- 
lynde hears of thy wealth, it will make her love thee the more 
willingly : for women's eyes are made of Chrysocoll, that is ever 
unperfect unless tempered with gold, and Jupiter soonest enjoyed 
Danae, because he came to her in so rich a shower. Thus shall 20 
this lion, Rosader, end the life of a miserable man, and from 
distress raise thee to be most fortunate." And with that, cast- 
ing his boar-spear on his neck, away he began to trudge. 

But he had not stepped back two or three paces, but a new 
motion stroke him to the very heart, that resting his boar-spear 25 
against his breast, he fell into this passionate humor : 

'' Ah, Rosader, wert thou the son of Sir John of Bordeaux, 
whose virtues exceeded his valor, and yet the most hardiest 
knight in all Europe ? Should the honor of the father shine in 
the actions of the son, and wilt thou dishonor thy parentage, in 30 
forgetting the nature of a gentleman ? Did not thy father at his 
last gasp breathe out this golden principle, ^ Brothers' amity is 
like the drops of balsamum, that salveth the most dangerous 



76 ROSALYNDE 

sores ? ' Did he make a large exhort unto concord, and wilt 
thou show thyself careless ? O Rosader, what though Saladyne 
hath wronged thee, and made thee live an exile in the forest, 
shall thy nature be so cruel, or thy nurture so crooked, or thy 
5 thoughts so savage, as to suffer so dismal a revenge ? What, to 
let • him be devoured by wild beasts ! No7i sapit qui non sibi 
sapit is fondly ^ spoken in such bitter extremes. Lose not his 
life, Rosader, to win a world of treasure ; for in having him thou 
hast a brother, and by. hazarding for his life, thou gettest a friend, 

lo and reconcilest an enemy : and more honor shalt thou purchase 
by pleasuring a foe, than revenging a thousand injuries/' 

With that his brother began to stir, and the lion to rouse him- 
self, whereupon Rosader suddenly charged him with the boar- 
spear, and wounded the lion very sore at the first stroke. The 

15 beast feeling himself to have a mortal hurt, leapt at Rosader, 
and with his paws gave him, a sore pinch on the breast, that he 
had almost fallen ; yet as a man most valiant, in whom the 
sparks of Sir John of Bordeaux remained, he recovered himself, 
and in short combat slew the lion, who at his death roared so 

20 loud that Saladyne awaked, and starting up, was amazed at the 
sudden sight of so monstrous a beast lying slain by him, and so 
sweet a gentleman wounded. He presently, as he was of a ripe 
conceit, began to conjecture that the gentleman had slain him in 
his defence. Whereupon, as a man in a trance, he stood staring 

25 on them both a good while, not knowing his brother, being in 
that disguise : at last he burst into these terms : 

^^ Sir, whatsoever thou be, as full of honor thou must needs 
be by the view of thy present valor, I perceive thou hast re- 
dressed my fortunes by thy courage, and saved my life with 

30 thine own loss, which ties me to be thine in all humble service. 
Thanks thou shalt have as thy due, and more thou canst not 
have, for my ability denies me to perform a deeper debt. But 

1 foolishly. 



ROSALYNDE yy 

if anyways it please thee to command me, use me as far as the 
power of a poor gentleman may stretch/' 

Rosader, seeing he was unknown to his brother, wondered to 
hear such courteous words come from his crabbed nature ; but 
glad of such reformed nurture, he made this answer : 5 

^^ I am, sir, whatsoever thou art, a forester and ranger of 
these walks, who, following my deer to the fall, was conducted 
hither by some assenting fate, that I might save thee, and dis- 
parage myself. For coming into this place, I saw thee asleep, 
and the lion watching thy awake, that at thy rising he might lo 
prey upon thy carcase. At the first sight I conjectured thee a 
gentleman, for all men's thoughts ought to be favorable in imagi- 
nation, and I counted it the part of a resolute man to purchase 
a stranger's relief, though with the loss of his own blood ; which 
I have performed, thou seest, to mine own prejudice. If, there- 1 5 
fore, thou be a man of such worth as I value thee by thy ex- 
terior lineaments, make discourse unto me what is the cause 
of thy present fortunes. For by the furrows in thy face thou 
seemest to be crossed with her frowns : but whatsoever, or how- 
soever, let me crave that favor, to hear the tragic cause of thy 20 
estate." 

Saladyne sitting down, and fetching a deep sigh, began thus : 

Saladyne's Discourse to Rosader Unknown 

'^ Although the discourse of my fortunes be the renewing of 
my sorrows, and the rubbing of the scar will open a fresh wound, 
yet that I may not prove ingrateful to so courteous a gentleman, 25 
I will rather. sit down and sigh out my estate, than give any 
offence by smothering my grief with silence. Know therefore, 
sir, that I am of Bordeaux, and the son and heir of Sir John of 
Bordeaux, a man for his virtues and valor so famous, that I 
cannot think but the fame of his honors hath reached farther 30 
than the knowledge of his personage. The infortunate son of 



78 ROSALYNDE 

so fortunate a knight am I ; my name, Saladyne ; who succeed- 
ing my father in possessions, but not in qualities, having two 
brethren committed by my father at his death to my charge, 
with such golden principles of brotherly concord, as might have 
5 pierced like the Sirens' melody into any human ear. But I, with 
Ulysses^ became deaf against his philosophical harmony, and 
made more value of profit than of virtue, esteeming gold suffi- 
cient honor, and wealth the fittest title for a gentleman's dignity. 
I set my middle brother to the university to be a scholar, count- 

10 ing it enough if he might pore on a book while I fed upon his 
revenues ; and for the youngest, which was my father's joy, 
young Rosader " — And with that, naming of Rosader, Sala- 
dyne sate him down and wept. 

^^ Nay, forward man," quoth the forester, '' tears are the un- 

15 fittest salve that any man can apply for to cure sorrows, an^ 
therefore cease from such feminine follies, as should drop out 
of a woman's eye to deceive, not out of a gentleman's look to 
discover his thoughts, and forward with thy discourse." 

" O sir," quoth Saladyne, '' this Rosader that wrings tears 

20 from inine eyes, and blood from my heart, was like my father 
in exterior personage and in inward qualities ; for in the prime 
of his years he aimed all his acts at honor, and coveted rather 
to die than to brook any injury unworthy a gentleman's credit. 
I, whom envy had made blind, and covetousness masked with 

25 the veil of self-love, seeing the palm tree grow straight, thought 
to suppress it being a twig ; but nature will have her course, the 
cedar will be tall, the diamond bright, the carbuncle glistering, 
and virtue will shine though it be never so much obscured. For 
I kept Rosader as a slave, and used him as one of my servile 

30 hinds, until age grew on, and a secret insight of my abuse 
entered into his mind ; insomuch, that he could not brook it, 
but coveted to have what his father left him, and to live of 
himself. To be short, sir, I repined at his fortunes, and he 



ROSALYNDE 79 

counterchecked me, not with ability but valor, until at last, by 
my friends and aid of such as followed gold more than right or 
virtue, I banished him from Bordeaux, and he, poor gentleman, 
lives no man knows where, in some distressed discontent. The 
gods, not able to suffer such impiety unrevenged, so wrought, that 5 
the king picked a causeless quarrel against me in hope to have my 
lands, and so hath exiled me out of France for ever. Thus, thus, 
sir, am I the most miserable of all men, as having a blemish in 
my thoughts for the wrongs I proffered Rosader, and a touch 
in my state to be thrown from my proper possessions by in- 10 
justice. Passionate thus with many griefs, in penance of my 
former follies I go thus pilgrim-like to seek out my brother, 
that I may reconcile myself to him in all submission, and after- 
ward wend to the Holy Land, to end my years in as many 
virtues as I have spent my youth in wicked vanities." 15 

Rosader, hearing the resolution of his brother Saladyne, 
began to compassionate his sorrows, and not able to smother 
the sparks of nature with feigned secrecy, he burst into these 
loving speeches : 

*' Then know, Saladyne," quoth he, '' that thou hast met with 20 
Rosader, who grieves as much to see thy distress, as thyself to 
feel the burden of thy misery." Saladyne, casting up his eye 
and noting well the physnomy of the forester, knew, that it was 
his brother Rosader, which made him so bash and blush at the 
first meeting, that Rosader was fain to recomfort him, which he 25 
did in such sort, that he showed how highly he held revenge in 
scorn. Much ado there was between these two brethren, SalaX 
dyne in craving pardon, and Rosader in forgiving and forget- \ 
ting all former injuries ; the one submiss, the other courteous ; 
Saladyne penitent and passionate, Rosader kind and loving, 2,0 
that at length nature working an union of their thoughts, they / 
earnestly embraced, and fell from matters of unkindness, to/ 
talk of the country life, which Rosader so highly commended,' 



8o ROSALYNDE 

that his brother began to have a desire to taste of that homely 
content. In this humor Rosader conducted him to Gerismond's 
lodge, and presented his brother to the king, discoursing the 
whole matter how all had happened betwixt them. The king 
5 looking upon Saladyne, found him a man of a most beauti- 
ful personage, and saw in his face sufficient sparks of ensu- 
ing honors, gave him great entertainment, and glad of their 
friendly reconcilement, promised such favor as the poverty of 
his estate might afford, which Saladyne gratefully accepted. 

lo And so Gerismond fell to question of Torismond's Ijfe. Saladyne 

briefly discoursed unto him his injustice and tyrannies, with 

such modesty, although he had wronged him, that Gerismond 

greatly praised the sparing speech of the young gentleman. 

Many questions passed, but at last Gerismond began with a 

15 deep sigh to inquire if there were any news of the welfare of 
Alinda, or his daughter Rosalynde ? 

^^ None, sir," quoth Saladyne, ^^ for since their departure they 
were never heard of." 

'^ Injurious fortune," quoth the king, '' that to double the 

20 father's misery, wrongest the daughter with misfortunes ! " 

And with that, surcharged with sorrows, he went into his cell, 
and left Saladyne and Rosader, whom Rosader straight con- 
ducted to the sight of Adam Spencer, who, seeing Saladyne in 
that estate, was in a brown study. But when he heard the whole 

25 matter, although he grieved for the exile of his master, yet he 
joyed that banishment had so reformed him,that from a lascivious 
youth he was proved a virtuous gentleman. Looking a longer 
while, and seeing what familiarity passed between them, and what 
favors were interchanged with brotherly affection, he said thus : 

30 '' Aye, marry, thus should it be ; this was the concord that 
old Sir John of Bordeaux wished betwixt you. Now fulfil you 
those precepts he breathed out at his death, and in observing 
them, look to live fortunate and die honorable." 



ROSALYNDE 8 1 

" Well said, Adam Spencer," quoth Rosader, '' but hast any 
victuals in store for us ? " 

'^ A piece of a red deer," quoth he, '' and a bottle of wine." 

" 'Tis foresters' fare, brother," quoth Rosader ; and so they 
sate down and fell to their cates. 5 

As soon as they had taken their repast, and had well dined, 
Rosader took his brother Saladyne by the hand, and showed 
him the pleasures of the forest, and what content they enjoyed 
in that mean estate. Thus for two or three days he walked up 
and down with his brother to show him all the commodities that lo 
belonged to his walk. 

In which time he was missed* of his Ganymede, who mused 
greatly, with Aliena, what should become of their forester. 
Somewhile they thought he had taken some word unkindly, 
and had taken the pet ; then they imagined some new love had 1 5 
withdrawn his fancy, or happily that he was sick, or detained 
by some great business of Gerismond's, or that he had made a 
reconcilement with his brother, and so returned to Bordeaux. ' 

These conjectures did they cast in their heads, but specially 
Ganymede, who, having love in her heart, proved restless, and 20 
half without patience, that Rosader wronged her with so long 
absence ; for Love measures every minute, and thinks hours to 
be 'days, and days to be months, till they feed their eyes with 
the sight of their desired object. Thus perplexed lived poor 
Ganymede, while on a day, sitting with Aliena in a great dump,-^ 25 
she cast up her eye, and saw where Rosader came pacing towards 
them with his forest bill on his neck. At that sight her color 
changed, and she said to Aliena : 

'' See, mistress, where our jolly forester comes." 

" And you are not a little glad thereof," quoth Aliena, " your 30 
nose bewrays what porridge you love : the wind cannot be tied 
within his quarter, the sun shadowed with a veil, oil hidden in 

1 despondency. 



82 ROSALYNDE 

water, nor love kept out of a woman's looks : but no more of 
that, Lupus est i7i fabulaP 

As soon as Rosader was come within the reach of her tongue's 
end, Aliena began thus : 
5 '^ Why, how now, gentle forester, what wind hath kept you 
from hence ? that being so newly married, you have no more 
care of your Rosalynde, but to absent yourself so many days ? 
Are these the passions you painted out so in your sonnets and 
roundelays ? I see well hot love is soon cold, and that the fancy 

10 of men is like to a loose feather that wandereth in the air with 
the blast of every wind." 

'^ You are deceived, mistress," quoth Rosader ; '^ 'twas a 
copy ^ of unkindness that kept me hence, in that, I being 
married, you carried away the bride ; but if I have given any 

15 occasion of offence by absenting myself these three days, I 
humbly sue for pardon, which you must grant of course, in that 
the fault is so friendly confessed with penance. But to tell you 
the truth, fair mistress and my good Rosalynde, my eldest 
brother by the injury of Torismond is banished from Bordeaux, 

20 and by chance he and I met in the forest." 

And here Rosader discoursed unto them what had happened 
betwixt them, which reconcilement made them glad, especially 
Ganymede. But Aliena, hearing of the tyranny of her father, 
grieved inwardly, and yet smothered all things with such secrecy, 

25 that the concealing was more sorrow than the conceit ; yet that 
her estate might be hid still, she made fair weather of it, and so 
let all pass. 

Fortune, that saw how these parties valued not her deity, but 
\ held her power in scorn, thought to have a bout with them, and 

30 brought the matter to pass thus. Certain rascals that lived by 
prowling in the forest, who for fear of the provost marshal had 
caves in the groves and thickets to shroud themselves from his 

1 quantity. 



ROSALYNDE 83 

trains, hearing of the beauty of this fair shepherdess, Aliena, 
thought to steal her away, and to give her to the king for a 
present ; hoping, because the king was a great lecher, by such 
a gift to purchase all their pardons, and therefore came to take 
her and her page away. Thus resolved, while Aliena and Gany- 5 
mede were in this sad talk, they came rushing in, and laid vio- 
lent hands upon Aliena and her page, which made them cry out . 
to Rosader ; who having the valor of his father stamped in his 
heart, thought rather to die in defence of his friends, than any 
way be touched with the least blemish of dishonor, and there- 10 
fore dealt such blows amongst them with his weapon, as he did 
witness well upon their carcases that he was no coward. But as 
Ne Hercules quidem contra duos, so Rosader could not resist a 
multitude, having none to back him ; so that he was not only 
rebated, but sore wounded, and Aliena and Ganymede had been 1 5 
quite carried away by these rascals, had not fortune (that meant f 
to turn her frown into a favor) brought Saladyne that way by 
chance, who wandering to find out his brother's walk, encoun- 
tered this crew : and seeing not only a shepherdess and her boy 
forced, but his brother wounded, he heaved up a forest bill he 20 
had on his neck, and the first he stroke had never after more 
need of the physician, redoubling his blows with such courage 
that the slaves were amazed at his valor. Rosader, espying his 
brother so fortunately arrived, and seeing how valiantly he be- 
haved himself, though sore wounded rushed amongst them, and 25 
laid on such load,^ that some of the crew were slain, and the rest 
fled, leaving Aliena and Ganymede in the possession of Rosader 
and Saladyne. 

Aliena after she had breathed awhile and was come to her- 
self from this fear, looked about her, and saw where Ganymede 30 
was busy dressing up the wounds of the forester : but she cast 
her eye upon this courteous champion that had made so hot a 

1 beat. 



84 ROSALYNDE 

rescue, and that with such affection, that she began to measure 
every part of him with favor, and in herself to commend his 
personage and his virtue, holding him for a resolute man, that 
durst assail such a troop of unbridled villains. At last, gather- 
5 ing her spirits together, she returned him these thanks : 

^^ Gentle sir, whatsoever you be that have adventured your 
flesh to relieve our fortunes, as we hold you valiant so we es- 
teem you courteous, and to have as many hidden virtues as you 
have manifest resolutions. We poor shepherds have no wealth 

lo but our flocks, and therefore can we not make requital with any 
great treasures ; but our recompense is thanks, and our rewards 
to her friends without feigning. For ransom, therefore, of this 
our rescue, you must content yourself to take such a kind gra- 
mercy as a poor shepherdess and her page may give, with prom- 

1 5 ise, in what we may, never to prove ingratef ul. For this gentleman 
that is hurt, young Rosader, he is our good neighbor and 
familiar acquaintance ; we '11 pay him with smiles, and feed 
him with love-looks, and though he be never the fatter at the 
year's end, yet we '11 so hamper him that he shall hold himself 

2o satisfied." 

Saladyne, hearing this shepherdess speak so wisely, began 
more narrowly to pry into her perfection, and to survey all her 
lineaments with a curious insight ; so long dallying in the flame 
of her beauty, that to his cost he found her to be most excellent : 

25 for love that lurked in all these broils to have a blow or two, 
seeing the parties at the gaze, encountered them both with such 
a veny,-^ that the stroke pierced to the heart so deep as it could 
never after be rased out. At last, after he had looked so long, 
till Aliena waxed red, he returned her this answer : 

3P ^^ Fair shepherdess, if Fortune graced me with such good hap 

/ as to do you any favor, I hold myself as contented as if I had 
gotten a great conquest ; for the relief of distressed women is 

1 assault. 



ROSALYNDE 85 

the special point that gentlemen are tied unto by honor : seeing 
then my hazard to rescue your harms was rather duty than 
courtesy, thanks is more than belongs to the requital of such 
a favor. But lest I might seem either too coy or too careless 
of a gentlewoman's proffer, I will take your kind gramercy for 5 
a recompense." 

All this while that he spake, Ganymede looked earnestly upon 
him, and said : 

^^ Truly, Rosader, this gentleman favors you much in the 
feature of your face." 10 

'^ No marvel," quoth he, ''gentle swain, for 'tis my eldest 
brother Saladyne." 

'' Your brother ? " quoth Aliena, and with that she blushed, 
''he is the more welcome, and I hold myself the more his 
debtor ; and for that he hath in my behalf done such a piece 1 5 
of service, if it please him to do me that honor, I will call 
him servant, and he shall call me mistress." 

" Content, sweet mistress," quoth Saladyne, " and when I 
forget to call you so, I will be unmindful of mine own self." 

" Away with these quirks and quiddities of love," quoth Ros- 20 
ader, " and give me some drink, for I am passing thirsty, and 
then will I home, for my wounds bleed sore, and I will have 
them dressed." 

Ganymede had tears in her eyes, and passions in her heart 
to see her Rosader so pained, and therefore stepped hastily to 25 
the bottle, and filling out some wine in a mazer,^ she spiced it 
with such comfortable drugs as she had about her, and gave it 
him, which did comfort Rosader, that rising, with the help of 
his brother, he took his leave of them, and went to his lodge. 
Ganymede, as soon as they were out of sight, led his flocks down 30 
to a vale, and there under the shadow of a beech tree sate down, 
and began to mourn the misfortunes of her sweetheart. 

1 wooden mug. 



86 ROSALYNDE 

And Aliena, as a woman passing discontent, severing her- 
self from her Ganymede, sitting under a limon tree, began to 
sigh out the passions of her new love, and to meditate with 
herself in this manner: 

Aliena's Meditation 

5 ''Ay me ! now I see, and sorrowing sigh to see, that Diana's 
laurels are harbors for Venus' doves ; that there trace as well 
through the lawns wantons as chaste ones ; that Calisto, be she 
never so chary, will cast one amorous eye at courting Jove ; 
that Diana herself will change her shape, but she will honor 

lo Love in a shadow ; that maidens' eyes be they as hard as dia- 
monds, yet Cupid hath drugs to make them more pliable than 
wax. See, Alinda, how Fortune and Love have interleagued 
themselves to be thy foes, and to make thee their subject, or 
else an abject, have inveigled thy sight with a most beautiful 

15 object. A-late thou didst hold Venus for a giglot, not a goddess, 
and now thou shalt be forced to sue suppliant to her deity. 
Cupid was a boy and blind ; but, alas, his eye had aim enough 
to pierce thee to the heart. While I lived in the court I held 
love in contempt, and in high seats I had small desires. I knew 

20 not affection while I lived in dignity, nor could Venus counter- 
check me, as long as my fortune was majesty, and my thoughts 
honor ; and shall I now be high in desires, when I am made low 
by destiny ? I have heard them say, that Love looks not at low 
cottages, that Venus jets ^ in robes not in rags, that Cupid flies 

25 so high, that he scorns to touch poverty with his heel. Tush, 
Alinda, these are but old wives' tales, and neither authentical 
precepts, nor infallible ' principles ; for experience tells thee', that 
peasants have their passions as well as princes, that swains as 
•they have their labors, so they have their amours, and Love 

30 lurks as soon about a sheepcote as a palace. 

1 struts. 



ROSALYNDE 8/ 

" Ah, Alinda, this day in avoiding a prejudice thou art fallen 
into a deeper mischief ; being rescued from the robbers, thou 
art become captive to Saladyne : and what then ? Women must 
love, or they must cease to live ; and therefore did nature frame 
them fair, that they might be subjects to fancy. But perhaps 5 
Saladyne's eye is levelled upon a more seemlier saint. If it be 
so, bear thy passions with patience ; say Love hath wronged 
thee, that hath not wrung him ; and if he be proud in contempt, 
be thou rich in content, and rather die than discover any desire : 
for there is nothing more precious in a woman than to conceal 10 
love and to die modest. He is the son and heir of Sir John of 
Bordeaux, a youth comely enough : O Alinda, too comely, else 
hadst not thou been thus discontent ; valiant, and that fettered 
thine eye ; wise, else hadst thou not been now won ; but for 
all these virtues banished by thy father, and therefore if he 15 
know thy parentage, he will hate> the fruit for the tree, and 
condemn the young scion for the old stock. Well, howso- 
ever, I must love, and whomsoever, I will ; and, whatsoever 
betide, Aliena will think well of Saladyne, suppose he of me 
as he please.'' 20 

And with that fetching a deep sigh, she rise up, and went to 
Ganymede, who all this while sate in a great dump,^ fearing the 
imminent danger of her friend Rosader ; but now Aliena began 
to comfort her, herself being overgrown with sorrows, and to 
recall her from her melancholy with many pleasant persuasions. 25 
Ganymede took all in the best part, and so they went home to- 
gether after they had folded their flocks, supping with old Cory- 
don, who had provided their cates. He, after supper, to pass 
away the night while ^ bedtime, began a long discourse, how Mon- 
tanus, the young shepherd that was in love with Phoebe, could 30 
by no means obtain any favor at her hands, but, still pained in 
restless passions, remained a hopeless and perplexed lover. 

1 mood of sadness. 2 until. 



88 ROSALYNDE 

'' I would I might/' quoth Aliena, '' once see that Phoebe. 
Is she so fair that she thinks no shepherd worthy of her beauty ? 
or so f roward that no love nor loyalty will content her ? or so 
coy that she requires a long time to be wooed? or so foolish 
5 that she forgets that like a fop she must have a large harvest 
for a little corn ? " 

^^ I cannot distinguish/' quoth Cory don, " of these nice quali- 
ties ; but one of these days I '11 bring Montanus and her down, 
that you may both see their persons, and note their passions ; 

lo and then where the blame is, there let it rest. But this I am 
sure," quoth Corydon, '^ if all maidens were of her mind, the 
world would grow to a mad pass ; for there would be great 
store of wooing and little wedding, many words and little 
worship, much folly and no faith." 

15 At this sad sentence of Corydon, so solemnly brought forth, 
Aliena smiled, and because it waxed late, she and her page went 
to bed, both of them having fleas in their ears to keep them 
awake ; Ganymede for the hurt of her Rosader, and Aliena for 
the affection she bore to Saladyne. In this discontented humor 

20 they passed away the time, till falling on sleep, their senses at 
rest. Love left them to their quiet slumbers, which were not 
long. For as soon as Phoebus rose from his Aurora, and began 
to mount him in the sky, summoning plough-swains to their 
handy labor, Aliena arose, and going to the couch where Gany- 

25 mede lay, awakened her page, and said the morning was far 

spent, the dew small, and time called them away to their folds. 

'' Ah, ah ! " quoth Ganymede, '^ is the wind in that door ? 

then in faith I perceive that there is no diamond so hard but 

will yield to the file, no cedar so strong but the wind will shake, 

30 nor any mind so chaste but love will change. Well, Aliena, 
must Saladyne be the man, and will it be a match ? Trust me, 
he is fair and valiant, the son of a worthy knight, whom if he 
imitate in perfection, as he represents him in proportion, he is 



ROSALYNDE ' • 89 

worthy of no less than Aliena. But he is an exile : what then ? 
I hope my mistress respects the virtues not the wealth, and 
measures the qualities not the substance. Those dames that 
are like Danae, that like love in no shape but in a shower of 
gold, I wish them husbands with much wealth and little wit, 5 
that the want of the one may blemish the abundance of the 
other. It should, my Aliena, stain the honor of a shepherd's 
life to set the end of passions upon pelf. Love's eyes looks not 
so low as gold ; there is no fees to be paid in Cupid's courts ; 
and in elder time, as Corydon hath told me, the shepherds' love- 10 
gifts were apples and chestnuts, and then their desires were 
loyal, and their thoughts constant. But now 

Quaerenda pecimia primum, post nummos virtus. 

And the time is grown to that which Horace in his Satires 

wrote on : 15 

omnis enim res 

Virtus fama decus divina humanaque pulchris 

Divitiis parent : quas qui construxerit ille 

Clarus erit, fortis, Justus. Sapiensne ? Etiam et rex 

Et quicquid volet — 20 

But, Aliena, let it not be so with thee in thy fancies, but respect 
his faith and there an end." 

Aliena, hearing Ganymede thus forward to further Saladyne in 
his affections, thought she kissed the child for the nurse's sake, and 
wooed for him that she might please Rosader, made this reply: 25 

" Why, Ganymede, whereof grows this persuasion ? Hast 
thou seen love in my looks, or are mine eyes grown so amor- 
ous, that they discover some new-entertained fancies ? If thou 
measurest my thoughts by my countenance, thou mayest prove 
as ill a physiognorner, as the lapidary that aims at the secret 30 
virtues of the topaz by the exterior shadow of the stone. 
The operation of the agate is not known by the strakes, nor 
the diamond prized by his brightness, but by his hardness. The 
carbuncle that shineth most is not ever the most precious ; and 



90 ROSALYNDE 

the apothecaries choose not flowers for their colors, but for their 
virtues. Women's faces are not always calendars of fancy, nor 
do their thoughts and their looks ever agree ; for when their 
eyes are fullest of favors, then are they oft most empty of 
5 desire ; and when they seem to frown at disdain, then are they 
most forward to affection. If I be melancholy, then, Ganymede, 
'tis not a consequence that I am entangled with the perfection 
of Saladyne. But seeing fire cannot be hid in the straw, nor 
love kept so covert but it will be spied, w^hat-^ should friends 

lo conceal fancies ? Know, my Ganymede, the beauty and valor, 
the wit and prowess of Saladyne hath fettered Aliena so far, as 
there is no object pleasing to her eyes but the sight of Saladyne ; 
and if Love have done me justice to wrap his thoughts in the 
folds of my face, and that he be as deeply enamored as I am 

1 5 passionate, I tell thee, Ganymede, there shall not be much woo- 
ing, for she is already won, and what needs a longer battery." 
'' I am glad," quoth Ganymede, '' that it shall be thus propor- 
tioned, you to match with Saladyne, and I with Rosader : thus 
have the Destinies favored us with some pleasing aspect, that have 

20 made us as private in our loves, as familiar in our fortunes." 

With this Ganymede start up, made her ready, and went into 

the fields with Aliena, where unfolding their flocks, they sate 

them down under an olive tree, both of them amorous, and yet 

diversely affected ; Aliena joying in the excellence of Saladyne, 

25 and Ganymede sorrowing for the wounds of her Rosader, not 

quiet in thought till she might hear of his health. As thus both 

of them sate in their dumps, they might espy where Corydon 

came running towards them, almost out of breath with his haste. 

'^ What news with you," quoth Aliena, '^ that you come in 

30 such post ? " 

'^ Oh, mistress," quoth Corydon, '' you have a long time de- 
sired to see Phoebe, the fair shepherdess whom Montanus loves ; 

1 why. 



ROSALYNDE 9 1 

so now if you please, you and Ganymede, but to walk with me 
to yonder thicket, there shall you see Montanus and her sitting 
by a fountain, he courting with his country ditties, and she as 
coy as if she held love in disdain." 

The news were so welcome to the two lovers, that up they 5 
rose, and went with Corydon. As soon as they drew nigh the 
thicket, they might espy where Phoebe sate, the fairest shep- 
herdess in all Arden, and he the frolickest swain in the whole for- 
est, she in a petticoat of scarlet, covered with a green mantle, and 
to shroud her from the sun, a chaplet of roses, from under which 10 
appeared a face full of nature's excellence, and two such eyes as 
might have amated ^ a greater man than Montanus. At gaze upon 
the gorgeous nymph sat the shepherd, feeding his eyes with her 
favors, wooing with such piteous looks, and courting with such 
deep-strained sighs, as would have made Diana herself to have 15 
been compassionate. At last, fixing his looks on the riches of 
her face, his head on his hand, and his elbow on his knee, 
he sung this mournful ditty : 

Mo7itanus^ Sonnet 

A turtle sate upon a leaveless tree, 

Mourning her absent fere 2 20 

With sad and sorry cheer : 

About her wondering stood 

The citizens of wood, 

And whilst her plumes she rents 

And for her love laments, 25 

, The stately trees complain them, 

The birds with sorrow pain them. 

Each one that doth her view 

Her pain and sorrows rue ; 

But were the sorrows known 30 

That me hath overthrown, 
Oh how would Phoebe sigh if she did look on me ! 

1 dismayed. 2 companion. 



92 ROSALYNDE 

The lovesick Polypheme, that could not see, 

Who on the barren shore 

His fortunes doth deplore, 

And melteth all in moan 
5 For Galatea gone, 

And with his piteous cries 

Afflicts both earth and skies, 

And to his woe betook 

Doth break both pipe and hook, 
lo For whom complains the morn. 

For whom the sea-nymphs mourn, 

Alas, his pain is nought ; 

For were my woe but thought, 
Oh how would Phoebe sigh if she did look on me ! 

1 5 Beyond compare my pain ; 

Yet glad am I, 
If gentle Phoebe deign 
To see her Montan die. 

After this, Montanus felt his passions so extreme, that he 
20 fell into this exclamation against the injustice of Love : 

Helas, tyran, plein de rigueur, 

Modere un peu ta violence : 

Que te sert si grande depense ? 

C'est trop de flammes pour un coeur. 
25 fipargnez en une etincelle, 

Puis fais ton effort d'emouvoir. 

La here qui ne veut point voir. 

En quel feu je brule pour elle. 

Execute, Amour, ce dessein, 
30 Et rabaisse un peu son audace : 

Son coeur ne doit etre de glace, 

Bien qu'elle ait de neige le sein. 

Montanus ended his sonnet with such a volley of sighs, and 
such a stream of tears, as might have moved any but Phoebe 
35 to have granted him favor. But she, measuring all his passions 
with a coy disdain, and triumphing in the poor shepherd's pathet- 
ical humors, smihng at his martyrdom as though love had been 
no malady, scornfully warbled out this sonnet : 



ROSALYNDE • 93 

Phoebe's Somiet, a Reply to Montanus^ Passion 

Down a down, 

Thus Phyllis sung, 

By fancy once distressed ; 
Whoso by foolish love are stung 

Are worthily oppressed. 5 

And so sing I. With a down, down, &c. 

When Love was first begot, 

And by the mover's will 
Did fall to human lot 

His solace to fulfil, 10 

Devoid of all deceit, 

A chaste and holy fire 
Did quicken man's conceit, 

And women's breast inspire. 
The gods that saw the good 15 

That mortals did approve, 
With kind and holy mood 

Began to talk of Love. 

Down a down, 

Thus Phyllis sung ' 20 

, By fancy once distressed, &c. 

But during this accord, 

A wonder strange to hear. 
Whilst Love in deed and word 

Most faithful did appear, 25 

False-semblance came in place. 

By Jealousy attended. 
And with a double face 

Both love and fancy blended ; 
Which made the gods forsake, 30 

And men from fancy fly, 
And maidens scorn a make,i 

Forsooth, and so will I. 

Down a down. 

Thus Phyllis sung, 35 

By fancy once distressed ; 

1 mate. 



94 . ROSALYNDE 

Who so by foolish love are stung 
Are worthily oppressed. 
And so sing I. 
With down a down, a down down, a down a. 

5 Montanus, hearing the cruel resolution of Phoebe, was so 
overgrown with passions, that from amorous ditties he fell fiat 
into these terms : 

^^ Ah, Phoebe," quoth he, ^^ whereof art thou made, that thou 
regardest not my malady ? Am I so hateful an object that thine 

10 eyes condemn me for an abject ? or so base, that thy desires can- 
not stoop so low as to lend me a gracious look ? My passions 
are many, my loves more, my thoughts loyalty, and my fancy 
faith : all devoted in humble devoir ^ to the service of Phoebe ; 
and shall I reap no reward for such fealties ? The swain's daily 

15 labors is quit with the evening's hire, the ploughman's toil is 
eased with the hope of corn, what the ox sweats out at the 
plough he f atteneth at the crib ; but infortunate Montanus hath 
no salve for his sorrows, nor any hope of recompense for the 
hazard of his perplexed passions. If, Phoebe, time may plead 

20 the proof of my truth, twice seven winters have I loved fair 
Phoebe : if constancy be a cause to farther my suit, Montanus' 
thoughts have been sealed in the sweet of Phoebe's excellence, 
as far from change as she from love : if outward passions may 
discover inward affections, the furrows in my face may decipher 

25 the sorrows of my heart, and the map of my looks the griefs of 
my mind. Thou seest, Phoebe, the tears of despair have made 
my cheeks full of wrinkles, and my scalding sighs have made 
the air echo her pity conceived in my plaints : Philomele hear- 
ing my passions, hath left her mournful tunes to listen to the 

30 discourse of my miseries. I have portrayed in every tree the 
beauty of my mistress, and the despair of my loves. What is it 
in the woods cannot witness my woes ? and w^ho is it would not 

1 duty. 



ROSALYNDE 95 

pity my plaints ? Only Phoebe. And why ? Because I am Mon- 
tanus, and she Phoebe : I a worthless swain, and she the most 
excellent of all fairies. Beautiful Phoebe ! oh, might I say piti- 
ful, then happy were I, though I tasted but one minute of that 
good hap. Measure Montanus not by his fortunes but by his 5 
loves, and balance not his wealth but his desires, and lend but 
one gracious look to cure a heap of disquieted cares : if not, ah ! . 
if Phoebe cannot love, let a storm of frowns end the discontent 
of my thoughts, and so let me perish in my desires, because 
they are above my deserts : only at my death this favor can- 10 
not be denied me, that all shall say Montanus died for love of 
hard-hearted Phoebe." 

At these words she filled her face full of frowns, and made 
him this short and sharp reply : 

" Importunate shepherd, whose loves are lawless, because 1 5 
restless, are thy passions so extreme that thou canst not con- 
ceal them with patience ? or art thou so folly-sick, that thou 
must needs be fancy-sick, and in thy affection tied to such an 
exigent,^ as none serves but Phoebe ? Well, sir, if your market 
may be made no where else, home again, for your mart is at the 20 
fairest. Phoebe is no lettuce for your lips, and her grapes hangs 
so high, that gaze at them you may, but touch them you cannot. 
Yet, Montanus, I speak not this in pride, but in disdain ; not that 
I scorn thee, but that I hate love ; for I count it as great honor to 
triumph over fancy as over fortune. Rest thee content therefore, 25 
Montanus : cease from thy loves, and bridle thy looks, quench 
the sparkles before they grow to a further flame ; for in loving 
me thou shalt live by loss, and what thou utterest in .words are 
all written in the wind. Wert thou, Montanus, as fair as Paris, as 
hardy as Hector, as constant as Troilus, as loving as Leander, 30 
Phoebe could not love, because she cannot love at all : and there- 
fore if thou pursue me with Phoebus, I must fly with Daphne." 

1 necessity. 



96 ROSALYNDE 

Ganymede, overhearing all these passions of Montanus, could 
not brook the cruelty of Phoebe, but starting from behind the 
bush said : 

''And if, damsel, you fled from me, I would transform you 
5 as Daphne to a bay, and then in contempt trample your branches 
under my feet." 

Phoebe at this sudden reply was amazed, especially when she 
saw so fair a swain as Ganymede ; blushing therefore, she would 
have been gone, but that he held her by the hand, and prosecuted 

10 his reply thus : 

x/^nL"^'' What, shepherdess, so fair and so cruel ? Disdain beseems 
not cottages, nor coyness maids ; for either they be condemned 
to be too proud, or too froward. Take heed, fair nymph, that 
in despising love, you be not overreached with love, and in 

15 shaking off all, shape yourself to your own shadow, and so 
with Narcissus prove passionate and yet unpitied. Oft have 
I heard, and sometimes have I seen, high disdain turned to hot 
desires. Because thou art beautiful be not so coy : as there is 
nothing more fair, so there is nothing more fading ; as momen- 

20 tary as the shadows which grows from a cloudy sun. Such, 
my fair shepherdess, as disdain in youth desire in age, and 
then are they hated in the winter, that might have been loved 
in the prime. A wrinkled maid is like to a parched rose, that is 
cast up in coffers to please the smell, not worn in the hand to 

25 content the eye. There is no folly in love to had I wist, and 
therefore be ruled by me. Love while thou art young, least 
thou be disdained when thou art old. Beauty nor time cannot 
be recalled, and if thou love, like of Montanus ; for if his de- 
sires are many, so his deserts are great." 

30 ' Phoebe all this while gazed on the perfection of Ganymede, 
as deeply enamored on his perfection as Montanus inveigled 
with hers; for her eye made survey of his excellent feature, 
which she found so rare, that she thought the ghost of Adonis 



ROSALYNDE 97 

had been leaped from Elysium in the shape of a swain. When 
she blushed at her own folly to look so long on a stranger, she 
mildly made answer to Ganymede thus : 

'' I cannot deny, sir, but I have heard of Love, though I never 
felt love ; and have read of such a goddess as Venus, though I 5 
never saw any but her picture ; and, perhaps '' — and with that 
she waxed red and bashful, and wdthal silent ; which Ganymede 
perceiving, commended in herself the bashfulness of the maid, 
and desired her to go forward. 

^^ And perhaps, sir," quoth she, ^^ mine eye hath been more 10 
prodigal to-day than ever before '' — and with that she stayed 
again, as one greatly passionate and perplexed. 

Aliena seeing the hare through the maze, bade her forward 
with her prattle, but in vain ; for at this abrupt period she 
broke off, and with her eyes full of tears, and her face covered 15 
with a vermilion dye, she sate down and sighed. Whereupon 
Aliena and Ganymede, seeing the shepherdess in such a strange 
plight, left Phoebe with her Montanus, wishing her friendly 
that she would be more pliant to Love, lest in penance Venus 
joined her to some sharp repentance. Phoebe made no reply, 20 
but fetched such a sigh, that Echo made relation of her plaint, 
giving Ganymede such an adieu with a piercing glance, that the 
amorous girl-boy perceived Phoebe was pinched by the heel. 

But leaving Phoebe to the follies of her new fancy, and Mon- 
tanus to attend upon her, to Saladyne, who all this last night 25 
could not rest for the remembrance of Aliena; insomuch that 
he framed a sweet conceited sonnet to content his humor, which 
he put in his bosom, being requested by his brother Rosader to 
go to Aliena and Ganymede, to signify unto them that his wounds 
were not dangerous. A more happy message could not happen 30 
to Saladyne, that taking his forest bill on his neck, he trudgeth 
in all haste towards the plains where Aliena's flocks did feed, 
coming just to the place when they returned from Montanus 



98 ROSALYNDE 

and Phoebe. Fortune so conducted this jolly forester, that he 
encountered them and Corydon, whom he presently saluted in 
this manner : 

'^ Fair shepherdess, and too fair, unless your beauty be 
5 tempered with courtesy, and the lineaments of the face graced 
with the lowliness qf mind, as many good fortunes to you and 
your page, as yourselves can desire or I imagine. My brother 
Rosader, in the grief of his green wounds still mindful of his 
friends, hath sent me to you with a kind salute, to show that he 

lo brooks his pains with the more patience, in that he holds the 
parties precious in whose defence he received the prejudice. 
The report of your welfare will be a great comfort to his dis- 
tempered body and distressed thoughts, and therefore he sent 
me with a strict charge to visit you." 

15 ^' And you," quoth Aliena, "are the more welcome in that 
you are messenger from so kind a gentleman, whose pains we 
compassionate with as great sorrow as he brooks them with 
grief ; and his wounds breeds in us as many passions as in him 
extremities, so that what disquiet he feels in body we partake 

20 in heart, wishing, if we might, that our mishap might salve his 
malady. But seeing our wills yields him little ease, our orisons ^ 
are never idle to the gods for his recovery." 

'^ I pray, youth," quoth Ganymede with tears in his eyes, '^ when 
the surgeon searched him, held he his wounds dangerous ? " 

25 '' Dangerous," quoth Saladyne, '^ but, not mortal ; and the 
sooner to be cured, in that his patient is not impatient of any 
pains : whereupon my brother hopes within these ten days to 
walk abroad and visit you himself." 

'' In the meantime," quoth Ganymede, '' say his Rosalynde 

30 commends her to him, and bids him be of good cheer." 

" I know not," quoth Saladyne, '' who that Rosalynde is, but 
whatsoever she is, her name is never out of his mouth, but 

1 prayers. 



ROSALYNDE 99 

amidst the deepest of his passions he useth Rosalynde as a 
charm to appease all sorrows with patience. Insomuch that I 
conjecture my brother is in love, and she some paragon that 
holds his heart perplexed, whose name he oft records with sighs, 
sometimes with tears, straight with joy, then with smiles ; as if 5 
in one person love had lodged a Chaos of confused passions. 
Wherein I have noted the variable disposition of fancy, that like 
the polype in colors, so it changeth into sundry humors, being, as 
it should seem, a combat mixed with disquiet and a bitter pleasure 
wrapped in a sweet prejudice, like to the Sinople tree, whose 10 
blossoms delight the smell, and whose fruit infects the taste.'' 

" By my faith,'' quoth Aliena, ^^ sir, you are deep read in love, 
or grows your insight into affection by experience ? Howsoever, 
you are a great philosopher in Venus' principles, else could you 
not discover her secret aphorisms. But, sir, our country amours 1 5 
are not like your courtly fancies, nor is our wooing like your 
suing ; for poor shepherds never plain them till love pain them, 
where the courtier's eyes is full of passions, when his heart, is 
most free from affection ; they court to discover their eloquence, 
we woo to ease our sorrows ; every fair face with them must 20 
have a new fancy sealed with a forefinger kiss and a far-fetched 
sigh, we here love one and live to that one so long as life 
can maintain love, using few ceremonies because we know 
few subtleties, and little eloquence for that we lightly account of 
flattery; only faith and troth, that's shepherd's wooing; and, 25 
sir, how like you of this ? " 

'^ So," quoth Saladyne, '^as I could tie myself to such love." 
^^ What, and look so low as a shepherdess, being the son of 
Sir John of Bordeaux ? Such desires were a disgrace to your 
honors." And with that surveying exquisitely every part of him, 30 
as uttering all these words in a deep passion, she espied the 
paper in his bosom ; whereupon growing jealous that it was 
some amorous sonnet, she suddenly snatched it out of his 



lOO ROSALYNDE 

bosom and asked if it were any secret. She was bashful, and 
Saladyne blushed, which she preceiving, said : 

" Nay then, sir, if you wax red, my life for yours 't is some 
love-matter : I will see your mistress' name, her praises, and your 
5 passions." And with that she looked on it, which was written to 
this effect : 

Saladyne^ s Sonnet 

If it be true that heaven's eternal course 
With restless sway and ceaseless turning gHdes ; 
If air inconstant be, and swelHng source 
10 Turn and returns with many fluent tides ; 

If earth in winter summer's pride estrange, 
And nature seemeth only fair in change ; 

If it be true that our immortal spright, 
Derived from heavenly pure, in wand'ring still, 
15 In novelty and strangeness doth delight. 

And by discoverent power discerneth ill ; 
And if the body for to work his best 
Doth with the seasons change his place of rest ; 

Whence comes it that, enforced by furious skies, 
20 I change both place and soil, but not my heart, 

Yet salve not in this change my maladies ? 
Whence grows it that each object works my smart ? 
Alas, I see my faith procures my miss. 
And change in love against my nature is. 

Et florida pungunt. 

25 Aliena having read over his sonnet, began thus pleasantly to 

descant upon it : 

'^ I see, Saladyne," quoth she, "that as the sun is no sun 

without his brightness, nor the diamond accounted for precious 

unless it be hard, so men are not men unless they be in love ; 
30 and their honors are measured by their amours, not their labors, 

counting it more commendable for a gendeman to be full of 

fancy, than full of virtue. I had thought 

Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus, 
Contemptaeque jacent et sine luce faces ; 



ROSALYNDE lOI 

but I see Ovid's axiom is not authentical, for even labor hath 
her loves, and extremity is no pumice-stone to rase out fancy. 
Yourself exiled from your wealth, friends, and country by Tor- 
ismond, sorrows enough to suppress affections, yet amidst 
the depth of these extremities, love will be lord, and show 5 
his power to be more predominant than fortune. But I pray 
you, sir, if without offence I may crave it, are they some new 
thoughts, or some old desires ? " 

Saladyne, that now saw opportunity pleasant, thought to 
strike while the iron was hot, and therefore taking Aliena by the lo 
hand, sate down by her ; and Ganymede, to give them leave to 
their loves, found herself busy about the folds, whilst Saladyne 
fell into this prattle with Aliena : 

'' Fair mistress, if I be blunt in discovering my affections, and 
use little eloquence in levelling out my loves, I appeal for par- 15 
don to your own principles, that say, shepherds use few cere- 
monies, for that they acquaint themselves with few subtleties :, 
to frame myself, therefore, to your country fashion with much 
faith and little flattery, know, beautiful shepherdess, that whilst 
I lived in the court I knew not love's cumber, but I held affec- 20 
tion as a toy, not as a malady ; using fancy as the Hyperborei 
do their flowers, which they wear in their bosom all day, and 
cast them in the fire for fuel at night. I liked all, because I 
loved none, and who was most fair, on her I fed mine eye, 
but as charily as the bee, that as soon as she hath sucked 25 
honey from the rose, flies straight to the next marigold. Living 
thus at mine own list, I wondered at such as were in love, and 
when I read their passions, I took them only for poems that 
flowed from the quickness of the wit, not the sorrows of the 
heart. But now, fair nymph, since I became a forester. Love 30 
hath taught me such a lesson that I must confess his deity and 
dignity, and say as there is nothing so precious as beauty, so 
there is nothing more piercing than fancy. For since first I 



I02 ROSALYNDE 

arrived at this place, and mine eye took a curious survey of 
your excellence, I have been so fettered with your beauty and 
virtue, as, sweet Aliena, Saladyne without further circumstance 
loves Aliena. I could paint out my desires with long ambages ^ ; 
5 but seeing in many words lies mistrust, and that truth is ever 
naked, let this suffice for a country wooing, Saladyne loves 
Aliena, and none but Aliena/' 

Although these words were most heavenly harmony in the ears 
of the shepherdess, yet to seem coy at the first courting, and to 

lo disdain love howsoever she desired love, she made this reply : 

''Ah, Saladyne, though I seem simple, yet I am more subtle 

than to swallow the hook because it hath a painted bait : as 

men are wily so women are wary, especially if they have that 

wit by others' harms to beware. Do we not know, Saladyne, 

15 men's tongues are like Mercury's pipe, that can enchant Argus 
with an hundred eyes, and their words as prejudicial as the 
charms of Circes, that transform men into monsters. If such 
Sirens sing, we poor women had need stop our ears, lest in 
hearing we prove so foolish hardy as to believe them, and so 

20 perish in trusting much and suspecting little. Saladyne, /w<^/<?r 
ictus sapit, he that hath been once poisoned and afterwards fears 
not to bowse ^ of every potion, is worthy to suffer double pen- 
ance. Give me leave then to mistrust, though I do not condemn. 
Saladyne is now in love with Aliena, he a gentleman of great 

2 5 parentage, she a shepherdess of mean parents ; he honorable 
and she poor ? Can love consist of contrarieties 1 Will the fal- 
con perch with the kestrel,^ the lion harbor with the wolf ? Will 
Venus join robes and rags together, or can there be a sympathy 
between a king and a beggar ? Then, Saladyne, how can I be- 

30 lieve thee that love should unite our thoughts, when fortune hath 
set such a difference between our degrees ? But suppose thou 
likest Aliena's beauty : men in their fancy resemble the wasp, 

1 indirect modes of speech. 2 drink. 3 hawk. 



ROSALYNDE 103 

which scorns that flower from which she' hath fetched her wax ; 
playing like the inhabitants of the islan d Tenerifa,_ who, when 
they have gathered the sweet spices, use the trees for fuel ; so 
men, when they have glutted themselves with the fair of women's 
faces, hold them for necessary evils, and wearied with that which 5 
they seemed so much to love, cast away fancy as children do 
their rattles, and loathing that which so deeply before they liked ; 
especially such as take love in a minute and have their eyes at- 
tractive, like jet, apt to entertain any object, are as ready to let 
it slip again." 10 

Saladyne, hearing how Aliena harped still upon one string, 
which was the doubt of men's constancy, he broke off her sharp 
invective thus : 

'^ I grant, Aliena," quoth he, '' many men have done amiss 
in proving soon ripe and soon rotten ; but particular instances 1 5 
infer no general conclusions, and therefore I hope what others 
have faulted in shall not prejudice my favors. I will not use 
sophistry to confirm my love, for that is subtlety ; nor long dis- 
courses lest my words might be thought more than my faith : 
but if this will suffice, that by the honor of a gentleman I love 20 
Aliena, and woo Aliena, not to crop the blossoms and reject the 
tree, but to consummate my faithful desires in the honorable 
end of marriage." 

At the word marriage Aliena stood in a maze what to answer, 
fearing that if she were too coy, to drive him away with her dis- 25 
dain, and if she were too courteous, to discover the heat of her 
desires. In a dilemma thus what to do, at last this she said : 

'^ Saladyne, ever since I saw thee, I favored thee ; I cannot 
dissemble my desires, because I see thou dost faithfully manifest 
thy thoughts, and in liking thee I love thee so far as mine honor 30 
holds fancy still in suspense ; but if I knew thee as virtuous as 
thy father, or as well qualified as thy brother Rosader, the doubt 
should be quickly decided : but for this time to give thee an 



I04 ROSALYNDE 

answer, assure thyself this, I will either marry with Saladyne, 
or still live a virgin." 

And with this they strained one another's hand ; which Gany- 
mede espying, thinking he had had his mistress long enough at 
5 shrift, said : 

'' What, a match or no ? " 

" A match," quoth Aliena, ''or else it were an ill market." 
" I am glad," quoth Ganymede. '' I would Rosader were 
well here to make up a mess." 
10 '^ Well remembered," quoth Saladyne ; '' I forgot I left my 
brother Rosader alone, and therefore lest being solitary he 
should increase his sorrows, I will haste me to him. May it 
please you, then, to command me any service to him, I am 
ready to be a dutiful messenger." 
15 '' Only at this time commend me to him," quoth Aliena, '' and 
tell him, though we cannot pleasure him we pray for him." 

"^And forget not," quoth Ganymede, ''my commendations; 

but say to him that Rosalynde sheds as many tears from her heart 

as he drops of blood from his wounds, for the sorrow of his mis- 

20 fortunes, feathering all her thoughts with disquiet, till his welfare 

procure her content: say thus, good Saladyne, and so farewell." 

He having his message, gave a courteous adieu to them both, 

especially to Aliena, and so playing loath to depart, went to his 

brother. But Aliena, she perplexed and yet joyful, passed away 

25 the day pleasantly, still praising the perfection of Saladyne, not 

ceasing to chat of her new love till evening drew on ; and then 

they, folding their sheep, went home to bed. Where we leave 

them and return to Phoebe. 

Phoebe, fired with the uncouth ^ flame of love, returned to her 

30 father's house, so galled with restless passions, as now she began 

to acknowledge, that as there was no flower so fresh but might 

be parched with the sun, no tree so strong but might be shaken 

1 unknown, unaccustomed. 



ROSALYNDE 105 

with a storm, so there was no thought so chaste, but time armed 
with love could make amorous ; for she that held Diana for the 
goddess of her devotion, was now fain to fly to the altar of 
Venus, as suppliant now with prayers, as she was forward 
before with disdain. As she lay in her bed, she called to mind 5 
the several beauties of young Ganymede ; first his locks, which 
being amber-hued, passeth the wreath that Phoebus puts on to 
make his front glorious ; his brow of ivory was like the seat 
where love and majesty sits enthroned to enchain fancy ; his 
eyes as bright as the burnishing of the heaven, darting forth 10 
frowns with disdain and smiles with favor, lightning such looks 
as would inflame desire, were she wrapped in the circle of the 
frozen zone ; in his cheeks the vermilion teinture of the rose 
flourished upon natural alabaster, the blush of the morn and 
Luna's silver show were so lively portrayed, that the Troyan 15 
that fills out wine to Jupiter was not half so beautiful ; his face 
was full of pleasance, and all the rest of his lineaments propor- 
tioned with such excellence, as Phoebe was fettered in the sweet- 
ness of his feature. The idea of these perfections tumbling in 
her mind made the poor shepherdess so perplexed, as feeling 20 
a pleasure tempered with intolerable pains, and yet a disquiet 
mixed with a content, she rather wished to die than to live in this 
amorous anguish. But wishing is little worth in such extremes, 
and therefore was she forced to pine in her malady, without any 
salve for her sorrows. Reveal it she durst not, as daring in such 25 
matters to make none her secretary ; ^ and to conceal it, why, it 
doubled her grief ; for as fire suppressed grows to the greater 
flame, and the current stopped to the more violent stream, so 
love smothered wrings the heart with the deeper passions. 

Perplexed thus with sundry agonies, her food began to fail, 30 
and the disquiet of her mind began to work a distemperature 
of her body, that, to be short, Phoebe fell extreme sick, and so 

1 confidante. 



Io6 ROSALYNDE 

sick as there was almost left no recovery of health. Her father, 
seeing his fair Phoebe thus distressed, sent for his friends, who 
sought by medicine to cure, and by counsel to pacify, but all in 
vain ; for although her body was feeble through long fasting, 
5 yet she did magis aegrotare animo quam corpore. Which her 
friends perceived and sorrowed at, but salve it they could not. 
The news of her sickness was bruited abroad through all the 
forest, which no sooner came to Montanus' ear, but he, like a 
madman, came to visit Phoebe. Where sitting by her bedside 

10 he began his exordium with so many tears and sighs, that she, 
perceiving the extremity of his sorrows, began now as a lover 
to pity them, although Ganymede held her from redressing 
them. Montanus craved to know the cause of her sickness, 
tempered with secret plaints, but she answered him, as the rest, 

15 with silence, having still the form of Ganymede in her mind, 
and conjecturing how she might reveal her loves. To utter it 
in words she found herself too bashful ; to discourse by any 
friend she would not trust any in her amours .; to remain thus 
perplexed still and conceal all, it was a double death. Where- 

20 upon, for her last refuge, she resolved to write unto Ganymede, 
and therefore desired Montanus to, absent himself a while, but not 
to depart, for she would see if she could steal a nap. He was no 
sooner gone out of the chamber, but reaching to her standish,^ 
she took pen and paper, and wrote a letter to this effect : 

25 ^^ Phoebe to Ganymede wisheth what she wants herself. 

Fair shepherd — and therefore is Phoebe inf ortunate, because 
thou art so fair — although hitherto mine eyes were adamants to 
resist love, yet I no sooner saw thy face, but they became amor- 
ous to entertain love ; more devoted to fancy than before they 
30 were repugnant to affection, addicted to the one by nature and 
drawn to the other by beauty : which, being rare and made the 

1 a stand or case for pen and ink. 



ROSALYNDE lO/ 

more excellent by many virtues, hath so snared the freedom of 
Phoebe, as she rests at thy mercy, either to be made the most 
fortunate of all maidens, or the most miserable of all women. 
Measure not, Ganymede, my loves by my wealth, nor my de- 
sires by my degrees ; but think my thoughts as full of faith, as 5 
thy face of amiable favors. Then, as thou knowest thyself most 
beautiful, suppose me most constant. If thou deemest me hard- 
hearted because I hated Montanus, think I was forced to it by 
fate ; if thou sayest I am kind-hearted because so lightly I love 
thee at the first look, think I was driven to it by destiny, whose lo 
influence, as it is mighty, so is it not to be resisted. If my for- 
tunes were anything but infortunate love, I would strive with 
fortune : but he that wrests ^ against the will of Venus, seeks 
to quench fire with oil, and to thrust out one thorn by putting 
in another. If then, Ganymede, love enters at the eye, harbors 15 
in the heart, and will neither be driven out with physic nor 
reason, pity me, as one whose malady hath no salve but from 
thy sweet self, whose grief hath no ease but through thy grant ; 
and think I am a virgin who is deeply wronged when I am 
forced to woo, and conjecture love to be strong, that is more 20 
forcible than nature. Thus distressed unless by thee eased, I 
expect either to live fortunate by thy favor, or die miserable 
by thy denial. Living in hope. Farewell. 

She that must be thine, 

or not be at all, 25 

Phoebe." 
To this letter she annexed this sonnet : 

Sonetto 

My boat doth pass the straits 

of seas incensed with fire, 
Filled with forgetfulness ; 

amidst the winter's night, 30 

1 wrestles. 



Io8 ROSALYNDE 

A blind and careless boy, 

brought up by fond desire, 
Doth guide me in the sea 

of sorrow and despite. 

5 For every oar he sets 

a rank of foolish thoughts, 
And cuts, instead of wave, 
a hope without distress ; 
The winds of my deep sighs, 
lo that thunder still for noughts. 

Have split my sails with fear, 
with care and heaviness. 

A mighty storm of tears, 
a black and hideous cloud, 
15 A thousand fierce disdains 

do slack the halyards oft ; 
Till ignorance do pull, 

and error hale the shrouds, 
No star for safety shines, 
20 no Phoebe from aloft. 

Time hath subdued art, • 
and joy is slave to woe : 

Alas, Love's guide, be kind ! 
what, shall I perish so ? 

25 This letter and the sonnet being ended, she could find no fit 
, messenger to send it by, and therefore she called in Montanus, 
and entreated him to carry it to Ganymede. Although poor 
Montanus saw day at a little hole, and did perceive what pas- 
sion pinched her, yet, that he might seem dutiful to his mistress 

30 in all service, he dissembled the matter, and became a willing 
messenger of his own martyrdom. And so, taking the letter, 
went the next morn very early to the plains where Alien a fed 
her flocks, and there he found Ganymede, sitting under a pome- 
granate tree, sorrowing for the hard fortunes of her Rosader. 

35 Montanus saluted him, and according to his charge delivered 
Ganymede the letters, which, he said, came from Phoebe. At 



ROSALYNDE 109 

this the wanton blushed, as being abashed to think what news 
should come from an unknown shepherdess ; but taking the 
letters, unripped the seals, and read over the discourse of 
Phoebe's fancies. When she had read and over-read them 
Ganymede began to smile, and looking on Montanus, fell into 5 
a great laughter, and with that called Aliena, to whom she 
showed the writings. Who, having perused them, conceited 
them very pleasantly, and smiled to see how love had yoked 
her, who before would not stoop to the lure ; Aliena whispering 
Ganymede in the ear, and saying, ^^ Knew Phoebe what want 10 
there were in thee to perform her will, and how unfit thy kind 
is to be kind to her, she would be more wise, and less enamored ; 
but l&ving that, I pray thee let us sport with this swain." At 
that word Ganymede, turning to Montanus, began to glance at 
him-^ thus : 15 

'' I pray thee, tell me, shepherd, by those sweet thoughts and 
pleasing sighs that grow from my mistress' favors, art thou in 
love with Phoebe ? " 

" Oh, my youth," quoth Montanus, '' were Phoebe so far in 
love with me, my flocks would be more fat and their master 20 
more quiet ; for through the sorrows of my discontent grows 
the leanness of my sheep." 

" Alas, poor swain," quoth Ganymede, '^ are thy passions so 
extreme or thy fancy so resolute, that no reason will blemish 
the pride of thy affection, and rase out that which thou strivest 25 
for without hope ? " 

'^ Nothing can make me forget Phoebe, while Montanus for- 
get himself ; for those characters which true love hath stamped, 
neither the envy of time nor fortune can wipe away." 

'^ Why but, Montanus," quoth Ganymede, '' enter with a deep 30 
insight into the despair of thy fancies, and thou shalt see the 
depth of thine own follies ; for, poor man, thy progress in love 

1 tease. 



no ROSALYNDE 

is a regress to loss, swimming against the stream with the crab, 
and flying with Apis Indica against wind and weather. Thou 
seekest with Phoebus to win Daphne, and she flies faster than 
thou canst follow : thy desires soar with the hobby,-^ but her 
5 disdain reacheth higher than thou canst make wing. I tell thee, 
Montanus, in courting Phoebe, thou barkest with the wolves of 
Syria against the moon, and rovest at such a mark, with thy 
thoughts, as is beyond the pitch ^ of thy bow, praying to Love, 
when Love is pitiless, and thy malady remediless. For proof, 

lo Montanus, read these letters, wherein thou shalt see thy great 
follies and little hope." 

With that Montanus took them and perused them, but with 
such sorrow in his looks, as they betrayed a source of confused 
passions in his heart ; at every line his color changed, and every 

15 sentence was ended with a period of sighs. 

At last, noting Phoebe's extreme desire toward Ganymede 
and her disdain towards him, giving Ganymede the letter, the 
shepherd stood as though he had neither won nor lost. Which 
Ganymede perceiving wakened him out of his dream thus : 

20 " Now, Montanus, dost thou see thou vowest great service 
and obtainest but little reward; but in lieu of thy loyalty, she 
maketh thee, as Bellerophon, carry thine own bane. Then drink 
not willingly of that potion wherein thou knowest is poison ; 
creep not to her that cares not for thee. What, Montanus, there 

25 are many as fair as Phoebe, but most of all more courteous 

than Phoebe. I tell thee, shepherd, favor is love's fuel ; then 

since thou canst not get that, let the flame vanish into smoke, 

and rather sorrow for a while than repent thee for ever." 

^^ I tell thee, Ganymede," quoth Montanus, ^^as they which 

30 are stung with the scorpion, cannot be recovered but by the 
scorpion, nor he that was wounded with Achilles' lance be 
cured but with the same truncheon,^ so Apollo was fain to cry 

1 falcon. 2 range. 3 spear. 



ROSALYNDE 1 1 1 

out that love was only eased with love, and fancy healed by no 
medicine but favor. Phoebus had herbs to heal all hurts but this 
passion ; Circes had charms for all chances but for affection, and 
Mercury subtle reasons to refel all griefs but love. Persuasions 
are bootless, reason lends no remedy, counsel no comfort, to such 5 
whom fancy hath made resolute ; and therefore though Phoebe 
loves Ganymede, yet Montanus must honor none but Phoebe." 

''Then," quoth Ganymede, ''may I rightly term thee a de- 
spairing lover, that livest without joy, and lovest without hope : 
but what shall I do, Montanus, to pleasure thee ? Shall I de- lo 
spise Phoebe, as she disdains thee ? " 

" Oh," quoth Montanus, " that were to renew my griefs, 
and double my sorrows ; for the sight of her discontent were 
the censure ^ of my death. Alas, Ganymede ! though I perish 
in my thoughts, let not her die in her desires. Of all pas- 15 
sions, love is most impatient : then let not so fair a creature 
as Phoebe sink under the burden of so deep a distress. Being 
lovesick, she is proved heartsick, and all for the beauty of 
Ganymede. Thy proportion hath entangled her affection, and 
she is snared in the beauty of thy excellence. Then, sith she 20 
loves thee so dear, mislike not her deadly. Be thou paramour 
to such a paragon : she hath beauty to content thine eye, and 
flocks to enrich thy store. Thou canst not wish for more than 
thou shalt win by her ; for she is beautiful, virtuous and wealthy, 
three deep persuasions to make love frolic." 25 

Aliena seeing Montanus cut it against the hair, and plead that 
Ganymede ought to love Phoebe, when his only life was the love 
of Phoebe, answered him thus : 

" Why, Montanus, dost thou further this motion, seeing if 
Ganymede marry Phoebe thy market is clean marred ? " 30 

" Ah, mistress," quoth he, "so hath love taught me to honor 
Phoebe, that I would prejudice my life to pleasure her, and die 

1 sentence. 



112 ROSALYNDE 

in despair rather than she should perish for want. It shall suf- 
fice me to see her contented, and to feed mine eye on her favor. 
If she marry, though it be my martyrdom, yet if she be pleased 
I will brook it with patience, and triumph in mine own stars to 
5 see her desires satisfied. Therefore, if Ganymede be as courteous 
as he is beautiful, let him show his virtues in redressing Phoebe's 
miseries." And this Montanus pronounced with such an assured 
countenance, that it amazed both Aliena and Ganymede to see 
the resolution of his- loves ; so that they pitied his passions and 

10 commended his patience, devising how they might by any subtlety 
get Montanus the favor of Phoebe. Straight (as women's heads 
are full of wiles) Ganymede had a fetch ^ to force Phoebe to fancy 
the shepherd, malgrado ^ the resolution of her mind : he prose- 
cuted his policy thus : 

T5 " Montanus," quoth he, '^ seeing Phoebe is so forlorn, lest I 
might be counted unkind in not salving so fair a creature, I will 
go with thee to Phoebe, and there hear herself in word utter 
that which she hath discoursed with her pen ; and then, as love 
wills me, I will set down my censure.^ I will home by our house, 

20 and send Cory don to accompany Aliena." 

Montanus seemed glad of this determination and away they 
go towards the house of Phoebe. 

When they drew nigh to the cottage, Montanus ran before, 
and went in and told Phoebe that Ganymede was at the door. 

25 This word '^ Ganymede," sounding in the ears of Phoebe, drave 
her into such an ecstasy for joy, that rising up in her bed, she 
was half revived, and her wan color began to wax red ; and 
with that came Ganymede in, who saluted Phoebe with such a 
courteous look, that it was half a salve to her sorrows. Sitting 

30 him down by her bedside, he questioned about her disease, and 
where the pain chiefly held her ? Phoebe looking as lovely as 
Venus in her night-gear, tainting her face with as ruddy a blush 

i device. 2 jn spite of. 3 decision. 



ROSALYNDE II3 

as Clytia did when she bewrayed her loves to Phoebus, taking 
Ganymede by the hand began thus : 

" Fair shepherd, if love were not more strong than nature, or 
fancy the sharpest extreme, my immodesty were the more, and 
my virtues the less ; for nature hath framed women's eyes bash- 5 
ful, their hearts full of fear, and their tongues full of silence ; 
but love, that imperious love, where his power is predominant, 
then he perverts all, and wresteth the wealth of nature to his 
own will : an instance in myself, fair Ganymede, for such a fire 
hath he kindled in my thoughts, that to find ease for the flame, 10 
I was forced to pass the bounds of modesty, and seek a salve 
at thy hands for my harms. Blame me not if I be overbold for 
it is thy beauty, and if I be too forward it is fancy, and the deep 
insight into thy virtues that makes me thus fond. For let me 
say in a word what may be contained in a volume, Phoebe loves 1 5 
Ganymede.'' 

At this she held down her head and wept, and Ganymede 
rose as one that would suffer no fish to hang on his fingers, 
made this reply : 

'' Water not thy plants, Phoebe, for I do pity thy plaints, nor 20 
seek not to discover thy loves in tears, for I conjecture thy truth 
by thy passions : sorrow is no salve for loves, nor sighs no rem- 
edy for affection. Therefore frolic, Phoebe ; for if Ganymede 
can cure thee, doubt not of recovery. Yet this let me say with- 
out offence, that it grieves me to thwart Montanus in his fancies, 25 
seeing his desires have been so resolute, and his thoughts so 
loyal. But thou allegest that thou art forced from him by fate : 
so I tell thee, Phoebe, either some star or else some destiny fits 
my mind, rather with Adonis to die in chase than be counted a 
wanton in Venus' knee. Although I pity thy martyrdom, yet 30 
I can grant.no marriage ; for though I held thee fair, yet mine 
eye is not fettered : love grows jiot, like the jierb _Spattana, to 
his perfection in one night, but creeps with the snail, and yet at 



114 ROSALYNDE 

last attains to the top. Festina leiite^ especially in love, for mo- 
mentary fancies are oft-times the fruits of follies. If, Phoebe, 
I should like thee as the Hyperborei do their dates, which ban- 
quet with them in the morning and throw them away at night, 
5 my folly should be great, and thy repentance more. Therefore 
I will have time to turn my thoughts, and my loves shall grow 
up as the watercresses, slowly, but with a deep root. Thus, 
Phoebe, thou mayest see I disdain not, though I desire not ; 
remaining indifferent till time and love makes me resolute. 

lo Therefore, Phoebe, seek not to suppress affection, and with 
the love of Montanus quench the remembrance of Ganymede ; 
strive thou to hate me as I seek to like of thee, and ever have 
the duties of Montanus in thy mind, for I promise thee thou 
mayest have one more wealthy, but not more loyal." These 

15 words were corrosives to the perplexed Phoebe, but sobbing 
out sighs, and straining out tears, she blubbered out these 
words : 

" And shall I then have no salve of Ganyrnede but suspense, 
no hope but a doubtful hazard, no comfort, but be posted off to 

20 the will of time ? Justly have the gods balanced my fortunes, 
who, being cruel to Montanus, found Ganymede as unkind to 
myself ; so in forcing him perish for love, I shall die myself 
with overmuch love." 

^^ I am glad," quoth Ganymede, '^ you look into your own 

25 faults, and see where your shoe wrings you, measuring now 
the pains of Montanus by your oWn passions." 

"Truth," quoth Phoebe, '^and so deeply I repent me of my 
frowardness toward the shepherd, that could I cease to love 
Ganymede, I would resolve to like Montanus." 

30 " What, if I can with reason persuade Phoebe to mislike of 
Ganymede, will she then favor Montanus ? " 

''When reason," quoth she, ''doth quench that love I owe 
to thee, then will I fancy him ; conditionally, that if my love 



ROSALYNDE II5 

can be suppressed with no reason, as being without reason 
Ganymede will only wed himself to Phoebe." 

^^ I grant it, fair shepherdess," quoth he ; '' and to feed thee 
with the sweetness of hope, this resolve on : I will never marry 
myself to woman but unto thyself." 5 

And with that Ganymede gave Phoebe a fruitless kiss, and 
such words of comfort, that before Ganymede departed she 
arose out of her bed, and made him and Montanus such cheer, 
as could be found in such a country cottage ; Ganymede in the 
midst of their banquet rehearsing the promises of either in Mon- 10 
tanus' favor, which highly pleased the shepherd. Thus, all three 
content, and soothed up in hope, Ganymede took his leave of 
his Phoebe and departed, leaving her a contented woman, and 
Montanus highly pleased. But poor Ganymede, who had her 
thoughts on her Rosader, when she called to remembrance his 15 
wounds, filled her eyes full of tears, and her heart full of sor- 
rows, plodded to find Aliena at the folds, thinking with her 
presence to drive away her passions. As she came on the 
plains she might espy where Rosader and Saladyne sate with 
Aliena under the shade ; which sight was a salve to her grief, 20 
and such a cordial unto her heart, that she tripped alongst the 
lawns full of joy. 

At last Corydon, who was with them, spied Ganymede, and 
with that the clown rose, and, running to meet him, cried : 

^' O sirrah, a match, a match ! our mistress shall be married 25 
on Sunday." 

Thus the poor peasant frolicked it before Ganymede, who 
coming to the crew saluted them all, and especially Rosader, 
saying that he was glad to see him so well recovered of his 
wounds. 30 

" I had not gone abroad so soon," quoth Rosader, ''but that 
I am bidden to a marriage, which, on Sunday next, must be 
solemnized between my brother and Aliena. I see well where 



Il6 ROSALYNDE 

love leads delay is loathsome, and that small wooing serves 
where both the parties are willing.'^ 

'' Truth," quoth Ganymede ; ''but a happy day should it be, 
if Rosader that day might be married to Rosalynde." 
5 '' Ah, good Ganymede," quoth he, '' by naming Rosalynde, 
renew not my sorrows ; for the thought of her perfections is 
the thrall of my miseries." 

''Tush, be of good cheer, man," quoth Ganymede : " I have a 
friend that is deeply experienced in negromancy and magic ; what 

10 art can do shall be acted for thine advantage : I will cause him to 

bring in Rosalynde, if either France or any bordering nation 

harbor her ; and upon that take the faith of a young shepherd." 

Aliena smiled to see how Rosader frowned, thinking that 

Ganymede had jested with him. But, breaking off from those 

15 matters, the page, somewhat pleasant, began to discourse unto 
them what had passed between him and Phoebe ; which, as they 
laughed, so they wondered at, all confessing that there is none 
so chaste but love will change. Thus they passed away the day 
in chat, and when the sun began to set they took their, leaves 

20 and departed ; Aliena providing for their marriage day such 
solemn cheer and handsome robes as fitted their country estate, 
and yet somewhat the better, in that Rosader had promised to 
bring Gerismond thither as a guest. Ganymede, who then meant 
to discover herself before her father, had made her a gown of 

25 green, and a kirtle of the finest sendal,^ in such sort that she 
seemed some heavenly nymph harbored in country attire. 

Saladyne was not behind in care to set out the nuptials, nor 
Rosader unmindful to bid guests, who invited Gerismond and 
all his followers to the feast, who willingly granted, so that 

30 there was nothing but the day wanting to this marriage. 

In the meanwhile, Phoebe being a bidden guest made herself 
as gorgeous as might be to please the eye of Ganymede ; and 

1 a thin silk. 



ROSALYNDE 11/ 



Montanus suited himself with the cost of many of nis flocks to 
be gallant against the day, for then was Ganymede to give 
Phoebe an answer of her loves, and Montanus either to hear 
the doom of his misery, or the censure of his happiness. But 
while this gear was a-brewing, Phoebe passe|d not one day with- 5 
out visiting her Ganymede, so far was she wapped in the beau- 
ties of this lovely swain. Much prattle they had, and the 
discourse of many passions, Phoebe wishing for the day, as 
she thought, of her welfare, and Ganymede smiling to think 
what unexpected events would fall out at the wedding. In lo 
these humors the week went away, that at last Sunday came. 

No sooner did Phoebus' henchman appear in the sky, to 
give warning that his master's horses should be trapped in 
his glorious coach, but Corydon, in his holiday suit, marvellous 
seemly, in a russet jacket, welted with the same and faced with 15. 
red worsted, having a pair of blue chamlet sleeves, bound at the 
wrists with four yellow laces, closed before very richly with a 
dozen of pewter buttons ; his hose was of grey kersey, with a 
large slop^ barred overthwart the pocket-holes with three fair 
guards, stitched of either side with red thread ; his stock was of 20 
the own, sewed close to his breech, and for to beautify his hose, 
he had trussed himself round with a dozen of new-threaden 
points ^ of medley color : his bonnet was green, whereon stood 
a copper brooch with the picture of Saint Denis ; and to want 
nothing that might make him amorous in his old days, he had 25 
a fair shirt-band of fine lockram,^ whipped over with Coventry 
blue of no small cost. Thus attired, Cor)7don bestirred himself 
as chief stickler ^ in these actions, and had strowed all the house 
with flowers, that it seemed rather some of Flora's choice bowers 
than any country cottage. 30 

Thither repaired Phoebe with all the maids of the forest, to 
set out the bride in the most seemliest sort that might be ; but 

1 a smock-frock, or possibly trousers. 2 laces. 3 linen. * manager. 



Il8 ROSALYNDE 

howsoever she helped to prank out Aliena, yet her eye was still 
on Ganymede, who was so neat in a suit of grey, that he seemed 
Endymion when he won Luna with his looks, or Paris when he 
played the swain to get the beauty of the nymph Oenone. Gany- 
5 mede, like a pretty page, waited on his mistress Aliena, and over- 
looked that all was in a readiness against the bridegroom should 
come ; who, attired in a forester's suit', came accompanied with 
Gerismond and his brother Rosader early in the morning ; where 
arrived, they were solemnly entertained by Aliena and the rest 

lo of the country swains ; Gerismond very highly commending the 
fortunate choice of Saladyne, in that he had chosen a shepherd- 
ess, whose virtues appeared in her outward beauties, being no 
less fair than seeming modest. Ganymede coming in, and see- 
ing her father, began to blush, nature working affects ^ by her 

1 5 secret effects : scarce could she abstain from tears to see her 
father in so low fortunes, he that was wont to sit in his royal 
palace, attended on by twelve noble peers, now to be contented 
with a simple cottage, and a troop of revelling woodmen for his 
train. The consideration of his fall made Ganymede full of sor- 

20 rows ; yet, that she might triumph over fortune with patience, 
and not any way dash that merry day with her dumps, she 
smothered her melancholy with a shadow of mirth, and very 
reverently welcomed the king, not according to his former de- 
gree, but to his present estate, with such diligence as Geris- 

25 mond began to commend the page for his exquisite person and 
excellent qualities. 

As thus the king with his foresters frolicked it among the 
shepherds, Corydon came in with a fair mazer ^ full of cider, 
and presented it to Gerismond with such a clownish salute that 

30 he began to smile, and took it of the old shepherd very kindly, 
drinking to Aliena and the rest of her fair maids, amongst whom 
Phoebe was the foremost. Aliena pledged the king, and drunk 

1 affections. 2 mug. 



ROSALYNDE 1 19 

to Rosader ; so the carouse went round from him to Phoebe, &c. 
As they were thus drinking and ready to go to church, came in 
Montanus, apparelled all in tawny, to signify that he was for- 
saken ; on his head he wore a garland of willow, his bottle 
hanged by his side, whereon was painted despair, and on his 5 
sheep-hook hung two sonnets, as labels of his loves and fortunes. 

Thus attired came Montanus in, with his face as full of grief 
as his heart was of sorrows, showing in his countenance the 
map of extremities. As soon as the shepherds saw him, they 
did him all the honor they could, as being the flower of all the 10 
swains in Arden ; for a bonnier boy was there not seen since 
that wanton wag of Troy that kept sheep in Ida. He, seeing 
the king, and guessing it to be Gerismond, did him all the 
reverence his country courtesy could afford ; insomuch that 
the king, wondering at his attire, began to question what he 15 
was. Montanus overhearing him, made this reply : 

^^ I am, sir,'' quoth he, '^Love's swain, as full of inward dis- 
contents as I seem fraught with outward follies. Mine eyes like 
bees delight in sweet flowers, but sucking their full on the fair 
of beauty, they carry home to the hive of my heart far more 20 
gall than honey, and for one drop of pure dew, a ton full of 
deadly Aconiton. I hunt with the fly to pursue the eagle, that 
flying too nigh the sun, I perish with the sun ; my thoughts are 
above my reach, and my desires more than my fortunes, yet 
neither greater than my loves. But daring with Phaethon, I 25 
fall with Icarus, and seeking to pass the mean, I die for being 
so mean ; my night-sleeps are waking slumbers, as full of sor- 
rows as they be far from rest ; and my days' labors are fruit- 
less amours, staring at a star and stumbling at a straw, leaving 
reason to follow after repentance ; yet every passion is a pleas- 30 
ure though it pinch, because love hides his wormseed^ in figs, 
his poisons in sweet potions, and shadows prejudice with the 

1 wormwood = bitterness. 



I20 ROSALYNDE 

mask of pleasure. The wisest counsellors are my deep discon- 
tents, and I hate that which should salve my harm, like the 
patient which stung with the Tarantula loathes music, and yet 
the disease incurable but by melody. Thus, sir, restless I hold 
5 myself remediless, as loving without either reward or regard, 
and yet loving because there is none worthy to be loved but the 
mistress of my thoughts. And that I am as full of passions as 
I have discoursed in my plaints, sir, if you please, see my sonnets, 
and by them censure of my sorrows." 
lo These words of Montanus brought the king into a great 
wonder, amazed as much at his wit as his attire, insomuch that 
he took the papers off his hook, and read them to this effect : 



Montanus^ first Sonnet 

Alas ! how wander I amidst these woods 

Whereas no day-bright shine doth find access ; 
15 But where the melancholy fleeting floods, 

Dark as the night, my night of woes express. 
Disarmed of reason, spoiled of nature's goods. 
Without redress to salve my heaviness 

I walk, whilst thought, too cruel to my harms, 
20 With endless grief my heedless judgment charms. 

My silent tongue assailed by secret fear, 

My traitorous eyes imprisoned in their joy, 
My fatal peace devoured in feigned cheer, 
My heart enforced to harbor in annoy, 
25 My reason robbed of power by yielding ear, 

My fond opinions slave to every toy. 

O Love ! thou guide in my uncertain way, 

Woe to thy bow, thy fire, the cause of my decay. 

Et florida pungtint. 

When the king had read this sonnet he highly commended 
30 the device of the shepherd, that could so wittily wrap his pas- 
sions in a shadow, and so covertly conceal that which bred his 
chief est discontent; affirming, that as the least shrubs have 



ROSALYNDE 121 

their tops, the smallest hairs their shadows, so the meanest 
swains had their fancies, and in their kind were as chary of 
love as a king. Whetted on with this device, he took the 
second and read it : the effects were these : 

Montanus' second Soiinet 

When the Dogi 5 

Full of rage, 

With his ireful eyes 

Frowns amidst the skies, 
The shepherd, to assuage 

The fury of the heat, 10 

Himself doth safely seat 
By a fount 
Full of fair. 

Where a gentle breath. 

Mounting from beneath, 1 5 

Tempereth the air. 
There his flocks 
Drink their fill. 

And with ease repose, 

Whilst sweet sleep doth close 20 

Eyes from toilsome ill. • 
But I burn 
Without rest, 

No defensive power 

Shields from Phoebe's lour; 25 

Sorrow is my best. 
Gentle Love, 
Lour no more ; 

If thou wilt invade 

In the secret shade, ^o 

Labor not so sore. 
I myself 
And my flocks, 

They their love to please, 

I myself to ease, 35 

Both leave the shady oaks ; 

Content to burn in fire, 

Sith Love doth so desire. 

Et fio rid a p n ngii n t. 

1 Sirius, the dog star. 



122 ROSALYNDE 

Gerismond, seeing the pithy vein of those sonnets, began to 
make further inquiry what he was. Whereupon Rosader dis- 
coursed unto him the love of Montanus to Phoebe, his great 
loyalty and her deep cruelty, and how in revenge the gods had 
5 made the curious nymph amorous of young Ganymede. Upon 
this discourse the king was desirous to see Phoebe, who being 
brought before Gerismond by Rosader, shadowed the beauty of 
her face with such a vermilion teinture, that the king's eyes be- 
gan to dazzle at the purity of her excellence. After Gerismond 

lo had fed his looks awhile upon her fair, he questioned with her 
why she rewarded Montanus' love with so little regard, seeing 
his deserts were many, and his passions extreme. Phoebe, to 
make reply to the king's demand, answered thus : 

'^ Love, sir, is charity in his laws, and whatsoever he sets 

15 down for justice, be it never so unjust, the sentence cannot be 
reversed ; women's fancies lend favors not ever by desert, but 
as they are enforced by their desires ; for fancy is tied to the 

I wings of fate, and what the stars decree, stands for an infallible 
doom. I know Montanus is wise, and women's ears are greatly 

20 delighted with wit, as hardly escaping the charm of a pleasant 
tongue, as Ulysses the melody of the Sirens. Montanus is 
beautiful, and women's eyes are snared in the excellence of 
objects, as desirous to feed their looks with a fair face, as the 
bee to suck on a sweet flower. Montanus is wealthy, and an 

25 ounce of give me persuades a woman more than a pound of 
hear me. Danae was won with a golden shower, when she 
could not be gotten with all the entreaties of Jupiter : I tell 
you, sir, the string of a woman's heart reacheth to the pulse of 
her hand ; and let a man rub that with gold, and 't is hard but 

30 she will prove his heart's gold. Montanus is young, a great 
clause in fancy's court ; Montanus is virtuous, the richest argu- 
ment that love yields ; and yet knowing all these perfections, I 
praise them and wonder at them, loving the qualities, but not 



ROSALYNDE 1 23 

affecting the person, because the destinies^ have set down a con- 
trary censure. Yet Venus, to add revenge, hath given me wine 
of the same grape, a sip of the same sauce, and firing me with 
the like passion, hath crossed me with as ill a penance ; for 
I am in love with a shepherd's swain, as coy to me as I am 5 
cruel to Montanus, as peremptory in disdain as I was per- 
verse in desire ; and that is," quoth she, ''Aliena's page, young 
Ganymede." 

Gerismond, desirous to prosecute the end of these passions, 
called in Ganymede, who, knowing the case, came in graced 10 
with such a blush, as beautified the crystal of his face with 
a ruddy brightness. The king noting well the physnomy of 
Ganymede, began by his favors to call to mind the face of his 
Rosalynde, and with that fetched a deep sigh. Rosader, that 
was passing familiar with Gerismond, demanded of him why 15 
he sighed so sore. 

'^ Because Rosader," quoth he, '' the favor of Ganymede puts 
me in mind of Rosalynde." 

At this word Rosader sighed so deeply, as though his heart 
would have burst. 20 

'' And what 's the matter," quoth Gerismond, '' that you quite 
me with such a sigh .? " 

" Pardon me, sir," quoth Rosader, "because I love none but 
Rosalynde." 

'' And upon that condition," quoth Gerismond, '' that Rosa- 25 
lynde were here, I would this day make up a marriage betwixt 
her and thee." 

At this Aliena turned her head and smiled upon Ganymede, 
and she could scarce keep countenance. \^et she salved all with 
secrecy ; and Gerismond, to drive away his dumps, questioned 30 
with Ganymede, what the reason was he regarded not Phoebe's 
love, seeing she was as fair as the wanton that brought Troy to 
ruin. Ganymede mildly answered : 



124 ROSALYNDE 

'^ If I should affect the fair Phoebe, I should offer poor Mon- 
tanus great wrong to win that from him in a moment, that he 
hath labored for so many months. Yet have I promised to the 
beautiful shepherdess to wed myself never to woman except 
5 unto her; but with this promise, that if I can by reason sup- 
press Phoebe's love towards me, she shall like of none but of 
Montanus." 

'' To that,'' quoth Phoebe, '' I stand ; for my love is so far 
beyond reason, as will admit no persuasion of reason." 
10 '^ For justice," quoth he, '' I appeal to Gerismond." 

'^ And to his censure will I stand," quoth Phoebe. 

"And in your victory," quoth Montanus, ''stands the haz- 
ard of my fortunes ; for if Ganymede go away with conquest, 
Montanus is in conceit love's monarch ; if Phoebe win, then am 
15 I in effect most miserable." 

" We will see this controversy," quoth Gerismond, '' and 
then w^e w^ill to church. Therefore, Ganymede, let us hear 
your argument." 

" Nay, pardon my absence a while," quoth she, '' and you 
20 shall see one in store." 

In went Ganymede and dressed herself in woman's attire, 
having on a gown of green, with kirtle of rich sendal,^ so 
quaint, that she seemed Diana triumphing in the forest ; upon 
her head she wore a chaplet of roses, which gave her such a 
25 grace that she looked like Flora perked in the pride of all her 
flowers. Thus attired came Rosalynde in, and presented her- 
self at her father's feet, with her eyes full of tears, craving his 
blessing, and discoursing unto him all her fortunes, ho 7.^ she 
was banished by Torismond, and how ever since she lived in 
30 that country disguised. 

Gerismond, seeing his daughter, rose from his seat and fell 
upon her neck, uttering the passions of his joy in watery plaints, 

1 a thin silk. 



ROSALYNDE 1 25 

driven into such an ecstasy of content, that he could not utter 
one word. At this sight, if Rosader was both amazed and joy- 
ful, I refer myself to the judgment of such as have experience 
in love, seeing his Rosalynde before his face whom so long and 
deeply he had affected. At last Gerismond recovered his spirits, 5 
and in most fatherly terms entertained his daughter Rosalynde, 
after many questions demanding of her what had passed between 
her and Rosader ? 

" So much, sir," quoth she, '^ as there wants nothing but your 
grace to make up the marriage." 10 

'^ Why, then," quoth Gerismond, '^ Rosader take her : she is 
thine, and let this day solemnize both thy brother's and thy 
nuptials." Rosader beyond measure content, humbly thanked 
the king, and embraced his Rosalynde, who turning to Phoebe, 
demanded if she had shown sufficient reason to suppress the 15 
force of her loves. 

'' Yea," quoth Phoebe, '^and so great a persuasive, that if it 
please you, madame, and Aliena to give us leave, Montanus and 
I will make this day the third couple in marriage." 

She had no sooner spake this word, but Montanus threw 20 
away his garland of willow, his bottle, where was painted de- 
spair, and cast his sonnets in the fire, showing himself as frolic 
as Paris when he handselled^ his love with Helena. At this 
Gerismond and the rest smiled, and concluded that Montanus 
and Phoebe should keep their wedding with the two brethren. 25 
Aliena seeing Saladyne stand in a dump,^ to wake him from his 
dream began thus : 

>^' Why how now, my Saladyne, all amort ? ^ what melancholy, 
man, at the day of marriage ? Perchance thou art sorrowful to 
think on thy brother's high fortunes, and thine own base desires 30 
to choose so mean a shepherdess. Cheer up thy heart, man; 
for this day thou shalt be married to the daughter of a king; 
1 began. 2 reveiy. 3 dead. 



126 ROSALYNDE 

for know, Saladyne, I am not Aliena, but Alinda, the daughter 
of thy mortal enemy Torismond/' 

At this all the company was amazed, especially Gerismond, 
who rising up, took Alinda in his arms, and said to Rosalynde : 
5 ''Is this that fair Alinda famous for so many virtues, that for- 
sook her father's court to live with thee exiled in the country ? " 
'' The same," quoth Rosalynde. 

"Then,'' quoth Gerismond, turning to Saladyne, ''jolly for- 
ester be frolic, for thy fortunes are great, and thy desires ex- 
lo cellent ; thou hast got a princess as famous for her perfection, 
as exceeding in proportion." 

" And she hath with her beauty won," quoth Saladyne, " an 
humble servant, as full of faith as she of amiable favor." 

While every one was amazed with these comical events, 
15 Corydon came skipping in, and told them that the priest was 
at church, and tarried for their coming. With that Gerismond 
led the way, and the rest followed ; where to the admiration of 
all the country swains in Arden their marriages were solemnly 
solemnized. As soon as the priest had finished, home they went 
20 with Alinda, where Corydon had made all things in readiness. 
Dinner was provided, and the tables being spread, and the brides 
set down by Gerismond, Rosader, Saladyne, and Montanus that 
day were servitors ; homely cheer they had, such as their coun- 
try couid afford, but to mend their fare they had mickle good 
25 chat, and many discourses of their loves and fortunes. About 
mid-dinner, to make them merry, Corydon came in with an old 
crowd,^ and played them a fit of mirth, to which he sung this 

pleasant song : 

Corydon'' s Song 

A blithe and bonny country lass, 
-20 heigh ho, the bonny lass ! 

Sate sighing on the tender grass 

and weeping said, will none come woo her. 

1 an old-fashioned violin with six strings. 



ROSALYNDE 12/ 

A smicker ^ boy, a lither swain, 

heigh ho, a smicker swain ! 
That in his love was wanton fain, 

with smiUng looks straight came unto her. 

Whenas the wanton wench espied, 5 

heigh ho, when she espied ! 
The means to make herself a bride, 

she simpered smooth like Bonnybell : 
The swain, that saw her squint-eyed kind, 

heigh ho, squint-eyed kind ! 10 

His arms about her body twined, 

and : '' Fair lass, how fare ye, well ? " 

The country kit said : " Well, forsooth, 

heigh ho, well forsooth ! 
But that I have a longing tooth, 1 5 

a longing tooth that makes me cry." 
" Alas ! " said he, " what gars 2 thy grief ? 

heigh ho, what gars thy grief ? " 
" A wound," quoth she, " without relief, 

I fear a maid that I shall die." 
" If that be all," the shepherd said, 20 

heigh ho, the shepherd said ! 
" He make thee wive it gentle maid, 

and so recure thy malady." 

Hereon they kissed with many an oath, 

heigh ho; with many an oath ! 25 

And fore God Pan did plight their troth, 

and to the church they hied them fast. 
And God send every pretty peat,^ 

heigh ho, the pretty peat ! 
That fears to die of this conceit, 30 

so kind a friend to help at last. 

Corydon having thus made them merry, as they were in 
the midst of their jollity, word was brought in to Saladyne 
and Rosader that a brother of theirs, one Fernandyne, was 35 
arrived, and desired to speak with them. Gerismond overhear- 
ing this news, demanded who it was. 

1 amorous, wanton. 2 occasions. 3 pet. 



128 ROSALYNDE 

'' It is, sir/' quoth Rosader, '' our middle brother, that lives 
a scholar in Paris ; but what fortune hath driven him to seek 
us out I know not." 

With that Saladyne went and met his brother, whom he wel- 
5 comed with all courtesy, and Rosader gave him no less friendly 
entertainment ; brought he was by his two brothers into the parlor 
where they all sate at dinner. Fernandyne, as one that knew as 
many manners as he could ^ points of sophistry, and was as well 
brought up as well lettered, saluted them all. .But when he 

lo espied Gerismond, kneeling on his knee he did him what rever- 
ence belonged to his estate, and with that burst forth into these 
speeches : 

"Although, right mighty prince, this day of my brother's 
marriage be a day of mirth, yet time craves another course ; 

15 and therefore from dainty cates rise to sharp weapons. And 
you, the sons of Sir John of Bordeaux, leave off your amours 
and fall to arms ; change your loves into lances, and now this 
day show yourselves as valiant as hitherto you have been pas- 
sionate. For know, Gerismond, that hard by at the edge of this 

20 forest the twelve peers of France are up in arms to recover thy 
right ; and Torismond, trooped with a crew of desperate runa- 
gates,^ is ready to bid them battle. The armies are ready to 
join ; therefore show thyself in the field to encourage thy sub- 
jects ; and you, Saladyne and Rosader, mount you, and show 

25 yourselves as hardy soldiers as you have been hearty lovers ; 
so shall you, for the benefit of your country, discover the idea 
of your father's virtues to be stamped in your thoughts, and 
prove children worthy of so honorable a parent." 

At this alarm, given him by Fernandyne, Gerismond leaped 

30 from the board, and Saladyne and Rosader betook themselves 
to their weapons. 

" Nay," quoth Gerismond, '' go with me ; I have horse and 

1 knew. 2 vagabonds, renegades. 



ROSALYNDE 1 29 

armor for us all, and then, being well mounted, let us show that 
we carry revenge and honor at our falchions' points." 

Thus they leave the brides full of sorrow, especially Alinda, 
who desired Gerismond to be good to her father. He, not re- 
turning a word because his haste was great, hied him home to 5 
his lodge, where he delivered Saladyne and Rosader horse and 
armor, and himself armed royally led the way ; not having rid- 
den two leagues before they discovered where in a valley both 
the battles were joined. Gerismond seeing the wing wherein 
the peers fought, thrust in there, and cried ^^ Saint Denis ! " to 
Gerismond laying on such load upon his enemies, that he 
showed how highly he did estimate of a crown. When the 
peers perceived that their lawful king was there, they grew 
more eager; and Saladyne and Rosader so behaved them- 
selves, that none durst stand in their way, nor abide the fury 15 
of their weapons. To be short, the peers were conquerors, 
Torismond's army put to flight, and himself slain in battle. 
The peers then gathered themselves together, and saluted' 
their king, conducted him royally into Paris, where he was 
received with great joy of all the citizens. As soon as all was 20 
quiet and he had received again the crown, he sent for Alinda ' 
and Rosalynde to the court, Alinda being very passionate 
for the death of her father, yet brooking it with the more 
patience, in that she was contented with the welfare of her 
Saladyne. 25 

Well, as soon as they were come to Paris, Gerismond made 
a royal feast for the peers and lords of his land, which con- 
tinued thirty days, in which time summoning a parliament, by 
the consent of his nobles he created Rosader heir apparent to 
the kingdom ; he restored Saladyne to all his father's land and 30 
gave him the Dukedom of Nameurs ; he made Fernandyne 
principal secretary to himself; and that fortune, might every 
way seem frolic, he made Montanus lord over all the forest 



I30 ROSALYNDE 

of Arden, Adam Spencer Captain of the King's Guard, and 
Corydon master of Alinda's flocks. 

Here, gentlemen, may you see in Euphues' Golden Legacy, 

that such as neglect their fathers' precepts, incur much prej- 

5 udice ; that division in nature, as it is a blemish in nurture, so 

't is a breach of good fortunes ; that virtue is not measured by 

birth but by action ; that younger brethren, though inferior in 

years, yet may be superior to honors ; that concord is the 

sweetest conclusion, and amity betwixt brothers more force- 

10 able than fortune. If you gather any fruits by this Legacy, 

speak well of Euphues for writing it, and me for fetching it. 

If you grace me with that favor, you encourage me to be more 

forward ; and as soon as I have overlooked my labors, expect 

the Sailor's Calendar. 

T. Lodge. 



FINIS 



QUESTIONS 



! On the Introduction 

1. Give the probable date of Lodge's birth. 

2. Give an account of his parentage and education. 

3. What was his first pubUcation? -^ 

4. What books did he write ? 

5. In what kind of Uterary work did he excel? y * 

6. In what adventures did he engage ? 

7. When did he die ? 

8. What was the origin of the pastoral romance ? ' , 

9. What are its literary characteristics ? 

10. Account for its popularity in the Elizabethan age. 

1 1. To what is the charm of " Rosalynde " chiefly due.? 

1 2. What is the place of the book in the history, of the development 
of English fiction 1 ' 

On the Structure 



1. Compare the story with " The Tale of Gamelyn." 

2. Upon what interest is the plot based — love, war, adventure ? 

3. What are the most noticeable improbabilities of the plot? 

4. Why does Shakespeare, in adapting the story to the require- 
ments of the stage, change the plot so little ? 

5. By what means does he effect most of these changes? 

6. How does he shorten the time of the action ? 

7. Why does he change the method by which, in the romance, 
the meeting of the two brothers is brought about ? 

8. Why did he end'the action differently from that of the romance ? 

9. What is the relation of the poems to the romance as a whole ? 

« 
Compare the songs in " As You Like It " in this regard. 

10. Is the structure of the romance as a whole dramatic? Can 

you identify the exposition, the exciting impulse, the climax, the 

denouement ? 

131 



132 * ROSALYNDE 

On the Characters 

1. How does Lodge oftenest reveal the characters — by what 
they do, by what they say, by what others do to them, or say about 
them, or by what he himself says about them ? 

2. What social classes are represented ? 

3. Is the leveling effect of the forest surroundings upon different 
social classes true to life? ' 

4. Do the characters impress you as real people ? Which are por- 
trayed most vividly and which least so ? 

5. Are the characters consistent, or do they sometimes act as you 
would not expect them to ? Do you find such sudden changes in the 
characters as you find in those of "As You Like It " ? 

6. Do the characters talk naturally — the kings as befits their rank, 
and the shepherds as such people really would talk? Is the dialogue 
lifelike? Compare the conversation, for example on page 10, with any 
page of conversation in Howells's " The Rise of Silas Lapham." How 
does " As You Like It " compare with " Rosalynde " in this respect? 

7. What characters does Shakespeare add, subordinate, accentuate ? 

8. Compare minutely Shakespeare's delineation of Rosalind with 
Lodge's. How does her treatment of Phoebe differ in the two 
authors ? 

9. Does Shakespeare excel Lodge more in his power to construct 
a plot or in his power to reveal character ? 

On the Settijig 

1. Catalogue the incongruous flora and fauna of Arden. 

2. Compare Shakespeare's Arden with Lodge's. In which case 
does the setting seem more real ? Did Lodge care to make the setting 
realistic ? 

3. What addition did Shakespeare make to the fauna of Arden? 

On the Style 

I . From the first half dozen pages of the romance select the char- 
acteristic elements of Lodge's style. Compare it with that of Sidney's 
'^ Arcadia," with Lyly's '^ Euphues," with Greene's " Menaphon." 



QUESTIONS 133 

2. With which of these authors does Lodge show closest affinity ? 

3. Select from any part of the book illustrations of the distinguish- 
ing marks of euphuism enumerated in the Introduction. 

4. Make a list of the references to " unnatural natural history."' 

5. Are these utterly absurd in themselves.^ Do they aid in the 
expression of the author's thought? Do they appear singly or in 
masses? What is the proportion of similes that are the result of 
first-hand observation of nature? 

6. Do you find any other similes, which seem, like that on page 
103, to have been suggested by Lodge's travels ? 

7. What of the mythological references ? Are they mere orna- 
ments to the style or are they an essential element in the expression 
qfjhe thought ? 

'^ 8. Point out other cases of plays upon words, Hke those on pages 
4 and 28. 

9. Make a list of proverbs still current found in the text, for 
example on pages S5^ ^2, 103. 

10. What popular superstition is referred to on page 74? Are 
there other such instances ? 

1 1 . Which of the poetical interludes do you prefer ? Why ? 

12. W^hat evidence can you find that Lodge admired his own 
poetry. 

13. Do you think it on the whole better or worse than Shakespeare's 
poetry in '' As You Like It "' ? 

14. Would you call Lodge's style '' sugared ''? If so, what would 
you mean by that epithet? -ty^-^-ciA; -^-^ /^K*-^- 



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